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Ewan’s particular interests are Leadership, the Realities of War and Close Combat, through the ages, but particularly the ‘horse and musket’ era. On tour, he believes in balancing depth of research with enjoyment.

He is a direct successor to Wellington’s McGrigor as Director General Army Medical Services. He set up and led the British Army’s Air Assault Medical Regiment and then commanded all of the Army’s Field Hospitals operating in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He was awarded an MBE for Squadron leadership in the First Gulf War and CBE for his direction of the Army Medical Services (AMS), at a time when the AMS achieved its highest battle casualty survival rate in history (halving the death rate).

A graduate of the Army Staff College and member of the Royal College of Defence Studies, his MA was on whether it is possible to create a strategy which endures. A Fellow of one of the Medical Royal Colleges, he is also an Apothecary and Freeman of the City of London.

Gregarious rather than combative by nature, he was surprised to be elected as President of the Combined Services Martial Arts Society by its members, and even more pleasantly surprised to win the first Worldwide Open tournament for renaissance sword & buckler at Hanover in 2010.

John Cotterill is a self employed battlefield guide for military groups, veterans, civilian clubs, families, individuals and schools. He was a founder member of the Guild of Battlefield Guides in 2003, was badged in 2004 (Badge 10) and was a Guild validator for 15 years. John served as a regular officer in the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment and their successors the Mercian Regiment for 37 years. He saw active service in Ulster, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan and inactive service on four continents. He lives in Nottingham and is an active member of the Western Front Association, the Soldiers,Sailors and Airmans Families Association (SSAFA) and his Regimental Association. John’s particular speciality is writing and delivering problem solving exercises that allow participants to “re-fight” battles of the past. He has guided groups on battlefields from Tanzania to Tunisia and from Stalingrad to Singapore

John Greenacre spent twenty four years in the British Army before as a logistician, helicopter pilot and staff officer. John is a graduate of the Advanced Command and Staff Course (ACSC) and retired from the Army in 2011. John received his PhD in history from the University of Leeds. His thesis on the development of British airborne forces during the Second World War was published in 2010 and he has subsequently written and lectured extensively on the subject.

John has been battlefield guiding since 2001. His unique experience across a diverse array of military disciplines and environments, coupled with his academic record allows him to comment with authority on battlefield subjects from logistics to air support. He works frequently with military groups from battalion and regiment level up to 3 Star headquarters across a wide range of campaigns and theatres. John received his Guiding Badge from the Patron of the Guild, Professor Richard Holmes, at Woolwich on Saturday 28th November 2009.

When not guiding John is employed as a lecturer in history at the University of Suffolk in Ipswich.

Mike Peters is a retired Army Air Corps Officer who has been leading battlefield tours for more than twenty-five 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. He now runs his own Battlefield Guide Training Company and is a full-time Military Historian and Battlefield Guide.

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, give 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 guides 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 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’ and ‘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 presenter with Battlefield History TV, featuring in films on The Hundred Years War, Pegasus Bridge, The Glider Pilot Regiment, Operation Market Garden and the Waterloo campaign. He 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 Richard Holmes in November 2005 and was Vice Chairman of the Guild from 2010-2011. Mike was appointed Guild Chairman in late 2011.

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 served for 22 years in the Regular Army in the 17^th/21^st 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 Alumni 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 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.