The 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.
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!
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 permit 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 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.
Some of our Accredited Guides have experience of researching military aspects of family history, and 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.
Simon Bendry
Accredited Guide Number: 104
Simon has been interested in military history since he was a child. He first visited the battlefields on family holidays and soon became fascinated with D Day and the Normandy campaign. In his teens he developed an interest in the First World War and led his first guided tours to the former battlefields of the Western Front while still at university. After graduating with a history degree, he went on to train as a teacher and for 15 years ran annual school tours to the Western Front.
From 2014, Simon ran the prestigious and multi award-winning First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme – a UK government funded initiative which saw 8,500 students and teachers visit the former battlefields of the Western Front. Simon led more than 90 of these tours and as the programme’s lead for on-site education became an internationally recognised expert in leading students and teachers on the battlefields. He has also led tours for adult organisations including universities. Simon also has a passion for historical research and is able to bring the battlefields to life with personal stories, while also placing these stories in the immediate and wider historical context.
Simon is a member of the British Commission for Military History and the Western Front Association.
Adult Coach GroupsBattlefield WalksBespoke Group...
Paul Colbourne
Accredited Guide Number: 113
ANZACS on the Western FrontBattle of the SommeBullecourt...
Adult Coach GroupsBattlefield WalksBespoke Group...
Roel Dekkers
Accredited Guide Number: 95
I have been interested in the stories of the Second World War since I was a child. This interest continued during my career as an officer in the Royal Netherlands Army; I was especially interested in comparing the military actions of now and then. Living in an area where, in September 1944, one of the largest airborne operations took place and where, in February of 1945, the largest land operation started on Dutch soil, I started to study these operations.
By giving battlefield tours from 2014 around the Rhineland I introduced people to a relatively unknown battle (Operations Veritable, Blockbuster, Plunder and Varsity) which was the beginning of the Allied advance over the River Rhine and the further advance to the northern Netherlands and towards Berlin.
Other specialisms:
On special request of individual family members of mostly deceased veterans, I provide a special tour where their relative spent their time during the battle for the Rhineland.
I also provide tours for specific military units.
I also give presentations to schools about the Second World War in general, special presentations about specific battles, and presentations about my efforts in crisis areas during my military career.
ArnhemEindhoven & NijmegenHürtgen Forest...
Adult Coach GroupsBespoke GroupCollege Groups...
Michael Garnett
Accredited Guide Number: 117
Michael’s interest in battlefields started whilst researching his great uncle, whose name was on the local war memorial in his home town. This took him on a long journey through the UK and France. He eventually found his grave in Belgium, bringing closure to a family mystery of over 80 years and allowing family members from as far as Australia to visit his grave and pay tribute to his memory.
This discovery led Michael into researching many battles and physically walking the ground enhancing his knowledge and understanding of tactics used on both sides. Armed with this knowledge, he began organising individual, group and bespoke tours to Ypres in Belgium, Normandy in France and Arnhem in Holland which he continues to this day.
As a former Warrant Officer, with over 38 years in the British Army, his operational tours included Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan, and exercises in Canada, Cyprus, Kenya and Poland. He has worked with many multinational forces giving him a thorough understanding of how other countries’ militaries operate. He was employed in many roles in the training, administration and welfare of over a hundred strong workforce during peace time and on operations. He was often called upon to plan, conduct and deliver intense training packages for servicemen as part of their continuous personal development and annual mandatory training.
In 2010, Michael gave evidence as part of the Iraq Enquiry, headed up by Sir John Chilcot, regarding the problems incurred during Operation Telic.
In 2020, together with his wife Jane, he set up their company “Avalon Tour de Force” which specialises in family research, bespoke group and individual battlefield tours, military history presentations and living history shows where they travel to schools, public and private events.
Michael was awarded Badge No 117 after completing the Guild’s validation scheme in November 2024.
Adult Coach GroupsBespoke GroupClubs and Societies...
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...
Tim Pritchard-Barrett
Accredited Guide Number: 71
Advance Battlefield Tours mission Statement is: To create and deliver – private, corporate & school tours which will entertain, educate, inform, teach, to even test individuals or groups of any size, tailored to any level of complexity, with any style of accommodation, over any length of time.
Our tours are delivered with care, great flexibility, knowledge, clarity, understanding, humour & unbridled enthusiasm for client needs & subject matter! Therefore we want you to “Smell that black powder & taste the cordite! “
Tim followed his family tradition and was commissioned into the Welsh Guards in 1974, where he served in every theatre upon which the regiment partook for nine years.
He has served for a total of 29 years. After the “regular” army Tim continued with the Territorial Army; – (similar to the US National Guard), in The Queens Own Yeomanry (A cavalry regiment in the role of deep penetration, armoured reconnaissance) up to the appointment of Squadron Leader but later as a staff officer, second in command and training officer for other regiments. His experiences in the military have included both operational command and staff appointments.
He been a member of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides since 2007, and holds Badge number 71. Widely experienced and well read, as a professional Battlefield Guide, Tim has led many dozens of tours across Western, Southern and Central Europe; (the majority, small business and personal tours) for 18 years.
New recent additions are the mystical secret Suffolk coast’s military heritage and the vast array of USAAF 8th Air Force Bases across East Anglia with the “Masters of the Air” Series having been on Apple TV.
All these tours have consistently reviewed Politics, Strategic aims, Operational Requirements, Ego, Command, Control, Intelligence (Gathering, Interpretation, Analysis & Dissemination), Leadership, Morale, Training, Weaponry, Logistics, Ground and Conditions. Most of all, to ensure a clarity of message and understanding to the tour participants, no matter their previous knowledge.
Always keen to research something new, Tim welcomes the challenge of conducting new tours, for forgotten wars, to unsung places.
Graham Roberts
Accredited Guide Number: 118
From a very early age, I have had a strong interest in history, and in particular military history – much to the bewilderment of my parents! I continued this to University level, gaining a degree in History & Ancient History.
My interest was certainly not lessened by 37 years as an Army Reservist, serving in a wide variety of roles and under multiple cap badges – Infantry, Royal Signals, Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. With my last unit, I planned and delivered a Battlefield Study to the Great War battlefields of Mons, Ypres & the Somme.
My first experience of digging in to military archives was after my mother passed me the Aircrew Log Book belonging to her late brother, whose aircraft disappeared during an anti-submarine patrol over the Atlantic in February 1944. 70 years after his last flight I visited the Runnymede Memorial and found his name.
A little later, I decided to try and find out something about the men and women named on the War Memorial in Harrogate, the town where I grew up and still live. I have been able to identify (and in many cases, put faces to) all but about 40 of the 1163 names, in addition to finding over 100 others who should have been included. I was heavily involved in the exhibition and events to commemorate the Centenary of the unveiling of the Memorial on 1st September 1923, including an interview on the ITV Evening News.
I joined the Guild in late 2022, and became an Accredited Member in January 2025.
I believe strongly in telling both the story of what happened on a battlefield, and also the stories of those who fought there.
In addition to being a member of the Guild, I am a local volunteer for the CWGC, conducting tours and talks locally.
ANZACS on the Western FrontAmerican Civil WarAncient / Roman...
Adult Coach GroupsIndividualsMilitary & Veteran...
Brian Rogers
Accredited Guide Number: 109
I am a serving Army officer and qualified as a badged guide in May 2020. I have served with the Household Cavalry both operationally and as a mounted cavalryman on state ceremonial and public duties, as well as working on the staff in the wider Army. Military experience of the Middle East, Balkans and Afghanistan.
I have been visiting battlefields for many years and have led a number of small group tours, for military personnel, veterans and members of the general public. Very interested in all matters involving the cavalry where I like to think I have a unique insight, as well as armoured operations where I also have significant practical knowledge. I continue to develop and learn my craft, and I am currently studying for an MA in the History of Great Britain and the First World War.
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...
Robert Shaw
Accredited Guide Number: 106
Robert Shaw MSc is the Director of Corporate Battlefields and the Director of Events of the International Guild Of Battlefield Guides. He is also Communications Co-ordinator and editor of the Guild magazine “Despatches”. Holding accredited Badge Number 106, his battlefield guiding experience includes the Romans and Vikings in Britain, the American Civil War, the English Civil War, the battles of Wellington and Napoleon, WW1, WW2 and the Cold War. These tours have been conducted in the UK, the USA, France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Sicily, Crete, Malta, Libya, the Baltic States, Poland and the Balkans. Robert has over 30 years’ experience in various military, diplomatic, intelligence and corporate security fields. He earned a Master’s degree in Global Security from Cranfield University and, in addition to running and guiding battlefield tours for schools, military units and private clients, he regularly contributes on military history, intelligence, counter proliferation and contemporary security and defence matters (including Russia, Iran, Korea and China). Robert has taught at UCL on “network attack” and spoken as an SME on the BBC. He has also provided historical and technical advice to Channel Four programmes such as ‘Toxic Wrecks’ and Apple’s “Masters of the Air”.
Bob has three children, enjoys mountain guiding, canoeing and teaches youth and adult groups survival and bushcraft, resistance and countering kidnap, escape and evasion, foreign culture workshops for businesses and mental resilience.
American Civil WarCold WarWWI...
Adult Coach GroupsBattlefield StudiesBespoke Group...