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

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.

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.