The guide directory details all Guild Accredited Members. Each of these has passed our Accreditation Programme – so you can be sure they are all high quality guides and will give you a great tour!
You can filter by battle/campaign or country and then click on the name of an Accredited Guide to read their biography. Most Accredited Guides have contact details by which you can contact them directly. If not, or if you want to pass a message to them, please contact them via 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. If you want to advice on following a particular ancestor and you have not identified a particular Accredited Guide, please contact the Guild Secretary. We guarantee we’ll have somebody that can help you!
Finally, this list shows only our Accredited Guides. 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, please contact the Guild Secretary via our Contacts Page.
Simon Browne
Accredited Guide Number: 116
Simon was an infantry officer for over 30 years. A member of the Royal Anglian Regiment, he served on operations in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in History, Master’s Degree in Military Studies and is a Graduate of the Advanced Command and Staff Course.
His fascination with touring battlefields began in 1977, when living in Germany he went to see the film a Bridge Too Far. Then persuaded his father, a Royal Air Force officer, to take him to Arnhem to try and bring to life what he had just seen. This interest further developed as student, studying for a History Degree at Portsmouth Polytechnic, where he organised his first Battlefield Tour, a trip with student friends to Normandy. He was very lucky in that his military career really allowed him to indulge this passion, taking him on numerous Battlefield Tours and Staff Rides, In Europe, America, and as far afield as Vietnam and the Falkland Islands.
Currently Simon focuses on three main campaigns; the Blitzkrieg of 1940, D-Day and the Normandy Campaign and the Ardennes Offensive, the ‘Battle of the Bulge’.
Simon Burgess
Accredited Guide Number: 108
Simon retired from the British Army in November 2022, and qualified as a badged guide (Badge 108) in May 2020.
He originally served in the Royal Air Force before leaving to pursue a career in the oil industry, and also serving as a reserve officer. Rather to his surprise he ended up joining the Regular Army 9 years ago.
Simon has served on operations in Gulf War 1, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Iraq (where he ran Basrah Fire Brigade) and twice as an aviation planner in Afghanistan (including with the US Marine Corps) and has worked at battlegroup, brigade and divisional level .
He has served as the Operations Officer in the Attack Helicopter Force HQ, and as the aviation specialist in the Collective Training Group at the Land Warfare Centre. He delivered training to brigade and division HQs, particularly in the use of aviation and air land integration.
Simon has recently guided tours to Normandy, Sicily and the Western Front battlefields of World War 1.
He is particularly interested in Normandy in WW2 (particularly the British 6th Airborne Division) and in all aspects of air power in WW1 and WW2.
He is also passionate about the American Civil War, particularly Gettysburg and the Eastern theatre battles.
American Civil WarBattle of the SommeNormandy Campaign...
BelgiumFranceUnited Kingdom...
Battlefield StudiesBespoke GroupClubs and Societies...
Stephen Chambers
Accredited Guide Number: 75
Steve is one of the leading military historians on the Gallipoli campaign. Even though this is his prime passion, he also has in-depth knowledge of many British military campaigns and battles that include Waterloo to the end of the Second World War. Stephen is a freelance battlefield guide, author and researcher specialising in British military history, from the redcoats to khaki.
He has written several books; his first book in the Battleground Europe series, Gallipoli – Gully Ravine (Pen & Sword 2002) had high acclaim, along with its follow-on volumes; Anzac The Landing (Pen & Sword 2008), Suvla: August Offensive (Pen & Sword 2011) and Anzac: Sari Bair (Pen & Sword 2014). British and commonwealth military history has continued to have been a successful theme, with Uniforms & Equipment of the British Army in World War One (Schiffer Books, 2005), the first serious work on the subject. Recently Stephen co-authored Gallipoli: The Dardanelles Disaster in Soldiers’ Words and Photographs (Bloomsbury 2015) with Richard van Emden and is working on Walking Gallipoli, to be published in 2018. Stephen’s Battleground Europe guidebooks have all been translated in to Turkish.
When not writing, Stephen is on the Battlefield, continuing his research and guiding groups. The best way to study a campaign is to walk in the footsteps of those involved, whether in the grasslands of Zululand, the mud of Flanders or the beaches of Gallipoli.
Stephen is a Trustee of the Gallipoli Association and a member of the Western Front Association and Orders and Medals Research Society. He is also a director of Great War Digital Ltd (http://www.greatwardigital.com/), home of the WW1 mapping Linesman GPS product.
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.
30 CorpsANZACS on the Western FrontAdvance to Victory...
Adult Coach GroupsBattlefield StudiesBattlefield Walks...
Graeme MacPherson
Accredited Guide Number: 115
Graeme is a serving Army officer with a background in military logistics. He has served full time and part time for over 34 years in a range of command and staff appointments.
He has been a member of the Guild of Battlefield Guides since 2014 and became a badged guide in 2021. His interest in the military started at a young age as he learned of the service of his grandfathers in the Second World War, one as a Royal Engineer, the other as a Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineer in 79th Armoured Division.
He has led a number of military group tours to the WW2 sites of Normandy, Monte Cassino, Sicily, Arnhem and Berlin before developing an interest in the Western Front during WW1.
Graeme has designed and led the Commonwealth Soldier programme taking school and community groups from SE England to the battlefields of France and Belgium to study the contributions made by Commonwealth troops in WW1. He has also delivered a number of tours in the UK and overseas has had the opportunity to lead a tour to the Falkland Islands. In 2018 he supported the Army Cadet Armistice 100 programme to the Somme and the National Muslim Armistice commemorations at Woking’s Indian Army Muslim burial ground memorial.
He is particularly interested in the human aspects of conflict and bringing the personal stories of those who served to life. In addition to leading groups, Graeme also has an interest in research and has delivered a number of WW1 community research projects, presentations and events as well as delivering individual bespoke research projects for families wanting to know more about their relatives.
He is a volunteer speaker for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and a member of the Western Front Association.
BelgiumFalkland IslandsFrance...
Adult Coach GroupsBattlefield WalksBespoke Group...
Mike Peters
Accredited Guide Number: 19
Mike Peters is a retired Army Air Corps Officer who has been leading battlefield tours for more than thirty years. He enlisted in the Army in 1980 at the age of 16 as a Junior Leader and progressed through a busy career to become a Regimental Sergeant Major. He was commissioned from the ranks in the year 2000. Mike finished his military career with postings as Deputy Chief of Staff of the UK Attack Helicopter Force and Ground Liaison Officer in the Headquarters of the RAF Tornado Force. Pre-pandemic, Mike ran his own training company, introducing aspirant guides to the battlefield tour industry, and was a co-Director of Staffride Ltd, specialising in Battlefield Studies for the UK military and NATO headquarters. He is now a UK MOD Civil Servant working in Communications and Heritage for the Royal Anglian Regiment.
Mike has extensive operational experience in Northern Ireland, Macedonia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq where he served during both Gulf wars. His last operational tour was in Afghanistan. This experience and knowledge of tactics gives him a soldier’s eye for ground and the implications of terrain on the weapon systems of your chosen period. He has a passion for military history which he combines with his own military experiences when working as a Battlefield Guide. He strives to place his audience on the field of battle with enough insight to understand the realities of battle, while helping them to imagine what the soldiers of the day saw and felt. This focus allows the listener to look at the battle from the inside out; this is of course every battlefield guide’s aim.
The campaigns of Wellington are Mike’s favourite subject area, although he is equally at home working with groups on the battlefields of the Great War. He is experienced in leading Australian and New Zealand groups over the ANZAC battlefields of the Western Front, Gallipoli and Palestine. Intimate knowledge of modern Air Assault operations also enables Mike to focus on the detail of the parachute and glider operations of World War Two. He regularly leads tours visiting the Landing Zones of Crete, Sicily, Normandy, Arnhem and the Rhine crossing.
Mike enjoys touring with both military and civilian groups and is regularly to be found on the continent leading civilian tours or military Battlefield Studies and Staff Rides. During the FWW Centenary he had a well-received weekly column in the East Anglian Daily Times and regularly contributes articles to military journals and magazines. Mike is a book reviewer for Soldier Magazine (House Magazine of the British Army) and is also a published author – he wrote ‘Glider Pilots at Arnhem’, ‘Glider Pilots in Sicily’ – both are books on the exploits of The Glider Pilot Regiment during World War Two. He has also worked as a TV presenter, featuring in programmes on The Hundred Years War, Dunkirk, Pegasus Bridge, The Glider Pilot Regiment, Operation Market Garden and the US Eighth Air Force daylight bombing campaign. He has just co-authored and published ‘Bomb Group’, the history of the 381st (H) Bomb Group USAAF, and is currently working on the Authorised Operational History of the Army Air Corps 1957-2017.
Mike is an Independent Battlefield Guide; he regularly leads tours for UK based Battle Honours Ltd, US based Experience to Lead, and Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tours in Australia. He was awarded his Guild Badge by the late Professor Richard Holmes in November 2005. He was Vice Chairman of the Guild from 2010-2011, and then Chairman of the Guild from 2011 – 2022.
Hastings CampaignNapoleonNormandy Campaign...
Adult Coach GroupsCorporate ToursLeadership & Management Training...
Brian Shaw
Accredited Guide Number: 18
Brian Shaw is an Ex Warrant Officer in the Parachute Regiment who has been leading
battlefield tours for the past twenty years. Born in Nottingham in 1958 he joined the Army in
1974 as a Junior Soldier, progressing through a busy career specializing in Battlefield
Communications. Brian become a Warrant Officer Class 1 in 1995 and retired from the
Army in January 2013 after 38 years’ service.
Brian has had an extensive career serving across the globe, in Northern Ireland on operations
and from South Africa to the Arctic Circle and from California to Hong Kong, the long way
round, on training. This long Infantry experience and knowledge of tactics, give him a
soldier’s eye for ground and the implications of terrain on the weapon systems of any
chosen period.
Brian has a long-held interest in military history, particularly the Second World War. He
combines his own experiences and his knowledge of history to put his audience on a tour
within the experience of what the soldiers of the day saw, felt and experienced.
Whilst Brian’s passion is for the Second World War and specifically NW Europe 1944/45
(D–Day to the war’s end) but with a wide military history knowledge he is happy working with
groups on the battlefields of the Great War or others.
Brian has assisted in and personally planned and led tours on the Battle of Waterloo, The
Western Front, Gallipoli, France and Belgium 1940, Malta, the fighting in Normandy,
Operation Market–Garden, Aachen, the Hurtgen Forest, the Rhine Crossing (Plunder and
Varsity) and the Ardennes Offensive. Italy – Anzio and Cassino.
AachenBattle of AnzioBattle of the Bulge...
Adult Coach GroupsBespoke GroupCollege Groups...
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.