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Allan served for 22 years in the Regular Army in the 17 th /21 st Lancers and Queens Royal Lancers, a career which ended at the Armoured Fighting Vehicle Gunnery School, Lulworth. Allan was later commissioned into the TA serving for a further 9 years firstly with the Dorset and later the Royal Wessex Yeomanry in Bovington where he began guiding battlefield tours.

Allan’s first battlefield tour as a guide was for the Yeomanry to Normandy in 1999. He has since guided over 100 battlefield tours for both Regular and Territorial Army units, schools and numerous adult groups to the Western Front, North West Europe and battles of other campaigns outside of the World Wars including Waterloo and Agincourt. Allan has guided many ANZAC focused tours of the Western Front, 1916-1918. Allan retired from teaching to give himself the time to be an active Battlefield Guide and works freelance for several companies and organisations. Allan also regularly gives talks on Military History to a wide variety of audiences.

Allan is an Accredited Member of (Badge Number 66) of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides. He is a member of the Western Front Association, Royal Lancers Regimental Association and a Trustee for the Dorset Yeomanry Association.

Allan is an ‘Old Boy’ of the Duke of York’s Royal Military School. Whilst in the Army he studied and graduated through the Open University and later trained as teacher at the University of Bath after which he taught History in a secondary school in Poole. Allan was later appointed as the Headteacher of the Compass, the school responsible for providing Alternative Provision for young people in Weymouth, where he lives with his wife Angela, who tolerates both his guiding and golf in exchange for holidays in the sun! They have two children.