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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.

Simon qualified as a badged guide (Badge 108) in May 2020 and retired from the British Army in November 2022.

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 somewhat later in life than planned.

Simon has served on operations in Gulf War 1, Kosovo, Sierra Leone (as a United Nations Military Observer), Iraq (where he ran Basrah Fire Brigade) and twice as an aviation planner in Afghanistan (including a tour with the US Marine Corps). He 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 has delivered training to brigade and division HQs, particularly in the use of aviation, air assault planning and air land integration.

Simon works for one of the major tour guide companies and regularly guides tours for military and school groups in Normandy, and the Western Front battles of WW1. He has also undertaken a number of direct engagements for military and other groups including HQ level staff rides.  He has guided Operation Market Garden and the Sicily landings.

He is particularly interested in Normandy in WW2 (particularly the British 6^th 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.

I am Roel Dekkers, a retired officer of the Dutch army.

Since my youth, I have been interested in World War II, especially the battles in Europe.

During my time in the Dutch army, we used many examples from World War II during training and education, which further increased my interest.

I was given the opportunity to give battlefield tours to my own unit, and this gradually expanded.

In 2017, I became a member of the Guild of Battlefield Guides, and in 2018, I completed all my assessments and received my coveted battlefield badge.

My battlefield tour specialises in the British and Canadian operations during Operation Veritable, which began on 8 February 1945 in the Groesbeek/Nijmegen area.

I also have a special interest in the follow-up to this operation, Operation Blockbuster, which was carried out by the Canadians. Finally, I give tours about the Rhine crossing Operation Plunder and the airborne operation Varsity.

You can also join me on a tour of Market Garden, following the exploits of the 82nd US Airborne Division in the Nijmegen area and/or the 1st British Airborne Division in the Arnhem area.

Using extensive photographic material and maps, I will try to bring the story of the battle to life at various points of interest.

My tours are suitable for individual participants and groups of all ages, military veterans, active military personnel and staff rides.  If desired, I can also go into more detail about the achievements of a particular battalion that your ancestors may have been part of.

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.

During the tour about Operation Veritable, we can delve deeper into the various divisions such as the 51st Highland Division, 15th Scottish Division or other British divisions. This also applies to the various regiments within such a division.

What applies to Operation Veritable also applies to the Canadian divisions and regiments during Operation Blockbuster.

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.

David Harrison is an independent battlefield tour guide who specialises in the Italian campaigns of the First and Second World War.  He organises bespoke tours to the First World War campaign in the north of Italy which include the Battle of Caporetto 1917, the fighting on the Asiago Plateau, along the River Piave and the final Battle of Vittorio Veneto 1918. He also specialises in the Allied Second World campaign on Sicily in 1943, at Salerno/Monte Cassino/Anzio 1943-44, and along the east coast against the Gothic Line 1944-45. His 30 years of service in the British Army from platoon to corps level allow him to interpret the battles for the visitor today, whilst his NATO assignments enable him to provide insights from the other main participants (Canada, Germany, Italy, Poland and USA). He has studied in detail the Battle of Ortona 1943, the role of Anders’s Polish II Corps and has a particular interest in the impact of the war on Italian society. He is educated at Masters level and has had campaign book reviews published. He received his accreditation (Badge 103) from the Guild in January 2020. He lives in Edinburgh and the Le Marche region of Italy.

Malcolm Jones BA (Hons)

Malcolm is a British Military Historian, who specializes in the campaigns and battles of Wellington in Spain during the Peninsular War. He is a member of the ‘Society for Army Historical Research’ and a Badged member of the Guild since 2009.

Malcolm has always been interested in History and the military, which developed from an early age. His main love and focus has always been the Second World War, the Indian Mutiny, and the British colonial army of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His passion for the Peninsular War campaigns and its Battlefields began some 35 years ago.

After serving in the Army, and obtaining his history degree, he worked in business management in Britain and the Middle East. Over the years he has travelled extensively throughout Portugal and Spain, much of it following in the footsteps of Wellington’s men. During this time, he fell in love with the Spanish landscape, history and culture.

Malcolm now lives in central Spain, close to many of the battlefield sites, which he has visited on many different occasions and therefore knows the areas he guides very well. He is an enthusiastic historian, who is happy to share his experience with anyone who is interested; be it Wellington’s Army, the local history, culture, food or wine.

As a Badged Member of the ‘Guild of Battlefield Guides’, Malcolm has led many Military Battlefield Studies over the last ten years and has experience of leading battlefield tours since 1993 in Germany, Poland, Crete and Spain. With a rich and knowledgeable background, you can be assured of an informative tour, presented in an enjoyable and interesting manner.

I have had a lifelong interest in history generally and military history in particular. During a 40 year career as a solicitor I organised and led, with my brother, many tours for friends and family to the battlefields of Western Europe.

As I came up to retirement I decided that I wanted to continue guiding on a formal basis. I obtained an MA in military history from the University of Buckingham, joined the Guild of Battlefield Guides and having completed the Guilds’ course for Accreditation am now the proud holder of Badge 101.

I am a freelance guide and have experience in researching for and guiding a variety of groups to western European battlefields of various eras. I also have a keen interest in Romano-British history, British history generally and the Wars of the Roses and the English Civil War in particular.

I retired from the army after a 34-year career in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. During my career, I served with a variety of regiments, including operational service in The Gulf, Bosnia and Afghanistan. From the very beginning of my career I was fascinated by each regiment’s unique history and battle honours. This soon developed into a quest for more knowledge, especially that of The Great War.

My interest in military history probably goes back even beyond my military service to my childhood, listening to my father who was a proud regular soldier who served with the Royal Army Medical Corps during the Second World War and saw service with the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk and later with the 8th Army at El Alamein.

I studied at Birmingham University under Professor Gary Sheffield and Dr Spencer Jones and in 2013 was awarded the MA in British First World War Studies. My thesis focused on the mechanical challenges of British armoured warfare in the Great War. I also have an MSc in Battlespace Technology gained at Shrivenham.

I have particular interests in trench raiding in the First World War and armoured warfare up to the modern day. I have been organising and guiding battlefield tours and conducting individual research for many years.

I completed the Guild’s validation scheme in 2014 and became one of the few accredited members not referred during validation. I was very proud to be awarded Badge Number 68 in 2014 by Professor Gary Sheffield.

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 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.

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.