Find a Guide

Explore the world’s most trusted directory of battlefield guides

The Find a Guide directory details all those Accredited Members who have chosen to advertise their expertise and services as guides on the Guild website.  Each of these has passed our Accreditation Programme in which they have demonstrated the skills needed for us to say that they are high-quality guides who will give you a great tour.

When searching for a guide, we recommend that you filter by battle/campaign, country or capability and then click on the name of an Accredited Guide to read their biography. In stating their expertise and services, Accredited Members should be able to guide the particular battle or campaign on the battlefield. Sometimes physically guiding on that battlefield may be impossible or impractical, or it is presentation services that are required, in which case the Accredited Member should be able to guide the battle or campaign “remotely”.

As you will see, most Accredited Members have contact details by which you can contact them directly, and some have their own website, a Tripadvisor and/or a Google Review Page. If  you are having difficulty in contacting them, please contact them via the Guild Secretary  via our Contacts Page.

Please note, the Guild does not recommend or endorse any of the commercial products or companies of the members listed below. We are not responsible for checking that those listed below have complied with the relevant legislation or regulations in the jurisdictions they are based or guide in. Many are members of ETOA or other local guiding associations and some have a local authorisation to work with children or vulnerable adults. But it is your responsibility to ensure they meet all the criteria you need for them to work with your group.

Finally, this list shows only our Accredited Members. Our Ordinary Members are not listed here and if you would like to check whether a particular individual is a member of the Guild, or for any other further help (for example satisfying a request for which you cannot seem to find a guide), please contact the Guild Secretary via our Contacts Page.

Many Guides can develop bespoke personalised tours and can research where particular ancestors might have fought or died based on information which you may have, and this is generally part of their service. If you want to advice on following a particular ancestor and / or help and advice on researching military aspects of family history, there are several Accredited Members who may be able to assist with your genealogical enquiries.  A list of those members is here; if you would like to seek their assistance, contact details can be found by selecting their profile from those shown on this page.

Battle

Frank Baldwin

Accredited Guide Number: 8

I am a freelance guide, historian and heritage professional. After retiring following ten years in the army as a Royal Artillery Officer, I became increasingly involved in interpreting and presenting battlefield heritage for the Battlefields Trust and The Royal British Legion. My interest in battlefield touring was triggered by noticing that the part of Germany in which we were training in the 1980s had been a battlefield in 1757. I had always been interested in military history and both my father and grandfather had fought in the world wars.

As a guide, my clients include  small and large groups, businesses as well as educational and military groups. I was an early supporter of the Guild of Battlefield Guides and been part of its validation team, responsible for assessing guides’ competence, since 2008. I instruct on courses teaching battlefield guides and have been Guide Co-ordinator for the Liberation Route Europe.

In 2012 I was elected to the British Commission for Military History. My published work includes two books on D Day and Normandy, chapters in British Army Guide to the Western Front, and articles in military history journals. I write a military history blog https://theobservationpost.com

My interest and knowledge of military history stretches from Caesar to the Cold War and my guiding experience covers much of Europe. Besides the world wars and the Napoleonic era, I am also interested in the mid C19th wars between Prussia, Austria and France and the Severn Years War.

Two of my books are on artillery in Normandy and I am currently writing a battlefield guide to artillery on the First Day of the Somme in publication. The artillery story of both world wars is a little neglected and I offer battlefield tours to tell the artillery story under the brand www.gunnertours.com

One speciality is providing military background for people researching their ancestry. I have been a researcher for a company that makes a popular ancestry-based TV programme and have appeared on television myself.

I have been privileged to support some of the British Army centenary staff rides as a subject matter expert alongside academic historians. My clients include many military units and headquarters. I run a website offering advice to military units planning staff rides, battlefield studies or realities of war tours. www.staffrideservices.com

The links between military and business strategy fascinate me. I offer a service to help organisations to learn from other people’s mistakes using examples from statecraft and military history. www.businessbattlefields.com

I chaired the Battlefields Trust from 2008-2015 and was involved in many projects to preserve, interpret and present many of the Battlefields of Britain, including the re-discovery of the battlefields of Bosworth.

100 Years War 1337-1453ANZACS on the Western FrontAachen 1944...Agincourt 1415Almaraz 1812Ancient / RomanAnglo/Zulu War 1879Arras 1917Arras 1940Aspern – Essling 1809Aubers Ridge 1915Austerlitz 1805Badajoz 1812Band of Brothers 101 AirborneBapaume 1916Battle of Amiens 1918Battle of Britain 1940Battle of Calais 1940Battle of Halbe 1945Battle of Lewes 1264Battle of Lys & Op Blucher 1918Battle of Teutoberger Forest c.9CEBattle of The Aisne 1914Battle of the Bulge 1944-5Battle of the Somme 1916Belleau Wood 1918Blenheim 1704Boer War 1899-1902Bosworth 1485British Civil WarsBruneval Raid 1942Bullecourt 1917Cambrai 1917Canadians on the Western FrontCiudad Rodrigo 1812Combined Bomber Offensive WW2Crecy 1346Culloden 1746D-Day - Op Overlord 1944Delville Wood 1916Dunkirk 1940Edward I’s conquest of North Wales 1277-83English Civil War 1642-1651Fall of Berlin 1945Fall of France 1940Festubert 1915First World War 1914-18Fromelles 1916Fuentes de Onoro 1811Fulford 1066German Airborne Invasion of Crete 1941German Spring Offensive 1918Gingindlovu 1879Gothic Line 1944-5Gustav Line 1944Hastings 1066Hindenburg Line 1917Hlobane 1879Hürtgen Forest 1944Isandlwana 1879Lansdown 1643Le Hamel 1918Liberation of the Netherlands 1944-45Ligny 1815London Blitz WW2Loos 1915Lorraine Campaign 1944Marston Moor 1644Messines 1917Meuse-Argonne 1918Middle AgesMinden 1759Monmouth Rebellion 1685Mons 1914Monte Cassino 1944Napoleonic WarsNeuve Chappelle 1915Norman Conquest of England 1066Normandy Campaign and breakout 1944Op Aintree 1944 - Battle of OverloonOp Blockbuster 1944 - Canadian drive to RhineOp Market Garden 1944 - Arnhem Eindhoven NijmegenOp Overlord Preparations in UK 1943-4Op Plunder 1945 - Rhine CrossingOp Veritable 1945 - Reichswald ForestOperation Amherst 1944 - NetherlandsOperation Berlin 1941Operation Frankton - Bordeaux 1942Operation Husky 1943 - SicilyOperation Infatuate 1944 - AntwerpOperation Jubilee - Dieppe 1942Operation Michel 1918Operation Shingle 1944 - AnzioOrtona 1943Passage of the Alps and Marengo 1800Passchendaele 1917Peninsular War 1808-13Polygon Wood 1917Quatre Bras 1815Retreat to the Marne 1914Roman Invasion of BritainRorke's Drift 1879Roundway 1643Salamanca 1812Sambre Crossing 1918Scheldt Estuary - Breskens Pocket & Walcheren 1944-5Second World War 1939-45Sedan 1940Sedgemoor 1685Seven Years' War 1756-1763Siege of Eshowe 1879St. Mihiel 1918Stanford Bridge 1066Talavera 1809The Jacobite Rebellions 1689-1756The Last 100 Days 1918The Somme 1918Third Battle of Ypres 1917Towton 1461UK Home Front WW2US Soldiers on the Western Front 1917 - 1918Ulundi 1879Verdun 1916Viking battles in YorkshireVillers-Bretonneux 1918Vimy Ridge 1917Vitoria 1813Wars of the Roses 1455-87WaterlooWaterloo Campaign 1815Wavre 1815

AustriaBelgiumCrete...Czech RepublicFranceGermanyHungaryItalyNetherlandsUnited Kingdom

Bespoke GroupCollege GroupsFamilies...IndividualsLeadership & Management TrainingManagement DevelopmentPilgrimage GroupsSmall GroupsWebsite

Christopher Finn

Accredited Guide Number: 42

Christopher Finn served in the RAF for 33 years as a navigator, primarily on the Buccaneer, and was a weapons and tactics specialist.  As a Wing Commander he was the UK’s LGB specialist in AHQ Riyadh during Operation GRANBY.  His final flying tour was as OC the Navigator & Airman Aircrew School.  A graduate of the Joint Services’ Defence College, in 2000 he gained an MPhil in International Relations from Cambridge University.  His last 5 years in the RAF were spent at Shrivenham, firstly on the Directing Staff of the Advanced Command and Staff Course and then, on promotion to Group Captain, as the RAF’s Director of Defence Studies.  In this role he lectured extensively on air power to UK and international audiences, published articles on air power and ran the RAF’s staff ride programme.

On leaving the RAF in 2005 he spent ten years as a Senior Lecturer in Air Power Studies with Kings College London, later Portsmouth University, based at the RAF College Cranwell.

Since 2003 Chris has developed and led over 30 staff rides and battlefield tours covering the subjects and battles listed below.  These have predominantly covered the influence of air power on the battlefield but also areas such as joint fires, logistics, command and control, intelligence, campaign planning, leadership at all levels and the political aspects of warfare.  However, he has also covered maritime battles (Malta & NEPTUNE) and land battles (Monte Cassino & Berlin).

 Chris also lectures on Military History to a wide range of audiences including, recently, a lecture on the role of the Royal Artillery in the Imjin River Battle of the Korean War.

He is a Fellow of both the Royal Aeronautical Society and the Higher Education Academy, and works as a volunteer Guide at the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

A member of the Guild since 2008, Chris gained his Badge in 2009, became the Chief Validator in 2015 and became the Director of Validation (now Accreditation Director) in 2017.  He was elected the fourth Fellow of the Guild at the 2020 Annual Conference.

Dudley Giles

Accredited Guide Number: 26

Dudley Giles has been an active battlefield guide for over 25 years and was an early member of the Guild of Battlefield Guides.

A former British Army officer, Dudley managed, in a career spanning nearly 34 years, to serve a third of his time in North West Europe (Germany and Belgium), a third in the UK (including three residential tours in Northern Ireland) and a third in ‘exotic’ locations such as Afghanistan, Bosnia, Canada, Croatia, Kosovo and the flanks of NATO (Norway and Turkey). In 1990 he attended the Army Command and Staff Course, and, in 2001, was serving as NATO’s senior military police officer during the climactic events post 9/11. In 2006/7 he deployed to Afghanistan as General Richards’ senior police advisor and his last appointment in the Army before finally retiring in 2012 he was Deputy Provost Marshal (Army).

In 2006/7 Dudley found himself on the modern battlefields of Afghanistan and was able to help soldiers, diplomats and journalists understand the historical similarities between the present and past experience of British soldiers in that country. On his return he acted as the chief battlefield guide for the very first Help for Heroes Big Battlefield Bike Ride and continued to support the charity in that capacity until 2013. This experience eventually led him to set up a specialist touring company -‘Battlefields by Bike.

Dudley took his first degree in Law (LL.B (Hons) at the University of Leeds in 1979 and later a Masters Degree in British First World Studies (2010) – graduating with Distinction.

When not running his own tours or carrying out research, Dudley works as an independent contractor for schools, military groups, families and other battlefield touring companies.

20th Century21st CenturyANZACS on the Western Front...Afghanistan 2001-21Arras 1917Arras 1940Aubers Ridge 1915Band of Brothers 101 AirborneBapaume 1916Battle of Amiens 1918Battle of Calais 1940Battle of Halbe 1945Battle of Lys & Op Blucher 1918Battle of The Aisne 1914Battle of the Bulge 1944-5Battle of the Somme 1916British Civil WarsBruneval Raid 1942Bullecourt 1917Cambrai 1917Canadians on the Western FrontCold War 1945-91Combined Bomber Offensive WW2D-Day - Op Overlord 1944Delville Wood 1916Dunkirk 1940Eastern Front WW2English Civil War 1642-1651Estonia 1944Fall of Berlin 1945Fall of France 1940Festubert 1915First World War 1914-18Fromelles 1916Gallipoli 1915-16German Spring Offensive 1918Gothic Line 1944-5Gustav Line 1944Hindenburg Line 1917Kursk 1943Le Hamel 1918Liberation of the Netherlands 1944-45London Blitz WW2Loos 1915Lorraine Campaign 1944Messines 1917Meuse-Argonne 1918Middle AgesMons 1914Monte Cassino 1944Neuve Chappelle 1915Normandy Campaign and breakout 1944Norway Campaign 1940Op Blockbuster 1944 - Canadian drive to RhineOp Dragoon 1944 - South of FranceOp Market Garden 1944 - Arnhem Eindhoven NijmegenOp Overlord Preparations in UK 1943-4Op Plunder 1945 - Rhine CrossingOp Veritable 1945 - Reichswald ForestOperation Avalanche 1943 - SalernoOperation Berlin 1941Operation Chariot - St Nazaire 1942Operation Husky 1943 - SicilyOperation Infatuate 1944 - AntwerpOperation Jubilee - Dieppe 1942Operation Michel 1918Operation Sealion (Seelöwe) 1940Operation Shingle 1944 - AnzioOrtona 1943Passchendaele 1917Polygon Wood 1917Retreat to the Marne 1914Sambre Crossing 1918Scheldt Estuary - Breskens Pocket & Walcheren 1944-5Second World War 1939-45The Last 100 Days 1918The Somme 1918Third Battle of Ypres 1917Villers-Bretonneux 1918Vimy Ridge 1917WaterlooYugoslav Wars (1990s)

AfghanistanBelgiumEngland...EstoniaFranceGermanyItalyNetherlandsNorwayScotlandSicilyTurkeyUnited KingdomWales

Adult Coach GroupsBattlefield StudiesBattlefield Walks...Bespoke GroupClubs and SocietiesCorporate ToursCultural ToursCycling battlefield toursEvening PresentationsFamiliesIndividualsLeadership & Management TrainingLong ToursManagement DevelopmentMilitary & VeteranPilgrimage GroupsSchool GroupsSelf-drive or guided toursShort ToursSmall GroupsStaff Rides

Tim Stoneman

Accredited Guide Number: 65

Tim has guided tours to battlefields and Remembrance sites since 2008, leading schools parties, groups of veterans, serving military and the general public.

 

Before this he served in the Royal Navy for 35 years as a Gunnery and Air Defence Officer. This included service at sea in the Falklands and in the First Gulf War, as well as deployments afloat to many other parts of the world, and shore postings working with colleagues from the British Army, Royal Air Force and other nations. During his naval career, his life-long interest in naval history led him to take part in several battlefield studies, initially as the maritime expert, and subsequently broadening his interests to encompass land and air campaigns of the 20th Century.

 

Whilst preferring to look at battlefields with a nautical or amphibious flavour, such as Gallipoli, Dunkirk or Normandy, he is equally at home guiding on the Somme, in Flanders or other land-locked regions.

 

He is a Westcountryman by birth, with, perhaps not surprisingly, something of a maritime interest from an early age. After many years in Portsmouth, enjoying living near a major focus of the nation’s naval heritage, he has recently returned to his Devonshire roots. He joined the Guild in 2008, was awarded his Badge in 2014 and became the Guild’s Validation Secretary in 2015, a role he relinquished in 2020 when he joined the Management Board and was appointed as Guild Secretary.

Allan Wood

Accredited Guide Number: 66

Allan served for 22 years in the Regular Army in the 17th/21st 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 nearly 200 battlefield tours for both Regular and Territorial Army units, schools and numerous adult groups to the Western Front, North West Europe plus other campaigns outside of the two 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 from those including very senior serving officers to local groups in the Dorset area and wider afield.

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

Allan is an Alumnus of the Duke of York’s Royal Military School, Dover.  Whilst in the Army he studied and graduated through the Open University, later training 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, Dorset. Allan still lives in Weymouth with his wife Angela, who tolerates both his guiding and golf in exchange for holidays in the sun!  They have two grown up children.