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.

Ancient / RomanRoman Invasion of BritainBattle of Teutoberger Forest c.9CE...Middle AgesViking battlesViking battles in YorkshireNorman Conquest of England 1066Fulford 1066Hastings 1066Stanford Bridge 1066Battle of Lewes 1264Edward I’s conquest of North Wales 1277-83100 Years War 1337-1453Crecy 1346Agincourt 1415British Civil WarsWars of the Roses 1455-87Towton 1461Bosworth 1485English Civil War 1642-1651Lansdown 1643Roundway 1643Marston Moor 1644Monmouth Rebellion 1685Sedgemoor 1685The Jacobite Rebellions 1689-1756Culloden 174618th CenturyWar of the Spanish Succession 1701-1714Blenheim 1704Seven Years' War 1756-1763Minden 1759Passage of the Alps and Marengo 180019th CenturyNapoleonic WarsAusterlitz 1805Aspern – Essling 1809Peninsular War 1808-13Talavera 1809Fuentes de Onoro 1811Almaraz 1812Ciudad Rodrigo 1812Badajoz 1812Salamanca 1812Vitoria 1813Waterloo Campaign 1815Ligny 1815Quatre Bras 1815WaterlooWavre 1815British Colonial ConflictsAnglo/Zulu War 1879Isandlwana 1879Rorke's Drift 1879Siege of Eshowe 1879Gingindlovu 1879Hlobane 1879Ulundi 1879Boer War 1899-190220th CenturyFirst World War 1914-18Western Front Allies of WW1ANZACS on the Western FrontUS Soldiers on the Western Front 1917 - 1918Canadians on the Western FrontWestern Front - The beginning (1914)Mons 1914Retreat to the Marne 1914Battle of The Aisne 1914Western Front - Stalemate (1915)Neuve Chappelle 1915Aubers Ridge 1915Festubert 1915Loos 1915Western Front - Counterattack (1916)Battle of the Somme 1916Delville Wood 1916Fromelles 1916Bapaume 1916Verdun 1916Western Front - Attrition (1917)Hindenburg Line 1917Arras 1917Vimy Ridge 1917Bullecourt 1917Messines 1917Third Battle of Ypres 1917Polygon Wood 1917Passchendaele 1917Cambrai 1917Western Front - Defeat and Victory (1918)German Spring Offensive 1918Operation Michel 1918Belleau Wood 1918Battle of Lys & Op Blucher 1918Villers-Bretonneux 1918Le Hamel 1918The Last 100 Days 1918Battle of Amiens 1918The Somme 1918Meuse-Argonne 1918St. Mihiel 1918Sambre Crossing 1918Second World War 1939-45Occupation of Europe (1940)Fall of France 1940Sedan 1940Arras 1940Dunkirk 1940Battle of Calais 1940Battle of Britain 1940UK Home Front WW2London Blitz WW2Mediterranean theatre WW2German Airborne Invasion of Crete 1941Air War over Europe WW2Combined Bomber Offensive WW2Naval battles WW2Operation Berlin 1941WW2 Commando and other Raids in Occupied EuropeBruneval Raid 1942Operation Jubilee - Dieppe 1942Operation Frankton - Bordeaux 1942Italian Front WW2Operation Husky 1943 - SicilyOrtona 1943Monte Cassino 1944Operation Shingle 1944 - AnzioGustav Line 1944Gothic Line 1944-5Liberation of Europe (1944)Op Overlord Preparations in UK 1943-4D-Day - Op Overlord 1944Normandy Campaign and breakout 1944Hürtgen Forest 1944Lorraine Campaign 1944Op Market Garden 1944 - Arnhem Eindhoven NijmegenAachen 1944Liberation of the Netherlands 1944-45Scheldt Estuary - Breskens Pocket & Walcheren 1944-5Operation Infatuate 1944 - AntwerpOp Aintree 1944 - Battle of OverloonOperation Amherst 1944 - NetherlandsOp Blockbuster 1944 - Canadian drive to RhineBattle of the Bulge 1944-5Band of Brothers 101 AirborneEastern Front WW2Battle of Halbe 1945Fall of Berlin 1945Advance into Germany (1945)Op Plunder 1945 - Rhine CrossingOp Veritable 1945 - Reichswald Forest

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David Wilson

Accredited Guide Number: 81

David’s background includes 45 years of military service in both the Regular Army and Reserve. He graduated from the Royal Military College Duntroon in December 1975 into the Royal Australian Infantry Corps. He has completed a wide variety of regimental, training and staff postings, including operational tours of duty in Uganda with the Commonwealth Military Training Team (1983) and in Cambodia with the UN (1991-92). In 2006-07 he was deployed as an Operations Analyst in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2004-05 he served as the ADF Liaison Officer to the USMC-led headquarters with other international assistance forces based in Thailand during the tsunami relief operation.

 

His keen interest for military history is long-standing and widely varied. This includes being involved as a specialist technical adviser to the movies “Breaker Morant” and “Gallipoli” which were filmed in South Australia in the early 1980s where he was posted at the time.

 

While researching various aspects of family involvement in WW1, he was invited to co- author the history of the 19th Infantry Battalion AIF. It was one of the many untold stories of the Great War and “Fighting Nineteenth” was published in June 2011. As a result of this work, he has set up his own business AIF Research Services which assists families and other interested groups to track their First AIF ancestors both in Australia, as well as providing advice for potential battlefield tourists. David is regularly booked to speak to local historical societies on a variety of WW1 topics.

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.

Middle Ages100 Years War 1337-1453Crecy 1346...Agincourt 141519th CenturyNapoleonic WarsWaterloo Campaign 1815Ligny 1815Quatre Bras 1815WaterlooWavre 1815First World War 1914-18Western Front Allies of WW1Soldiers of the British Empire WW1ANZACS on the Western FrontCanadians on the Western FrontMons 1914Retreat to the Marne 1914Battle of The Aisne 1914Western Front - Stalemate (1915)Neuve Chappelle 1915Aubers Ridge 1915Festubert 1915Loos 1915Western Front - Counterattack (1916)Battle of the Somme 1916Delville Wood 1916Fromelles 1916Verdun 1916Western Front - Attrition (1917)Hindenburg Line 1917Arras 1917Vimy Ridge 1917Bullecourt 1917Messines 1917Third Battle of Ypres 1917Passchendaele 1917Cambrai 1917Western Front - Defeat and Victory (1918)German Spring Offensive 1918Belleau Wood 1918Villers-Bretonneux 1918Le Hamel 1918The Last 100 Days 1918Battle of Amiens 1918Meuse-Argonne 1918St. Mihiel 1918Second World War 1939-45Occupation of Europe (1940)Fall of France 1940Arras 1940Dunkirk 1940Battle of Calais 1940WW2 Commando and other Raids in Occupied EuropeOperation Chariot - St Nazaire 1942Operation Jubilee - Dieppe 1942Liberation of Europe (1944)D-Day - Op Overlord 1944Normandy Campaign and breakout 1944Op Market Garden 1944 - Arnhem Eindhoven NijmegenArnhem 1944Eindhoven 1944Nijmegen 1944Liberation of the Netherlands 1944-45Battle of the Bulge 1944-5Cold War 1945-91

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