Our Team of Historians and Guides

Our team of historians and guides are selected for their experience, depth of knowledge, enthusiasm, and ability to tell the story in an entertaining and engaging way. Most are accredited members of the prestigious International Guild of Battlefield Guides, which means they endeavour to maintain high levels of good practice commensurate with the Guild’s ethos.

Ian Gumm
Ian Gumm

Ian is the cofounder of In The Footsteps, a full-time professional historian and guide, the former Chair and an accredited (badged) member of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides, a member of the Battlefields Trust, Society for Army Historical Research (SAHR), Western Front Association and Last Post Association. As a military historian and retired Army officer, Ian is able to add a soldier's perspective to the tours he leads.   Read more ...

David Hammond
David Hammond

As a former Commanding Officer of 7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery, David has a practitioner's view on the conduct of military operations and the impact of the realities of war on its participants. A lifelong military history enthusiast, he is a graduate of the UK's first Advanced Command and Staff Course and holds a master's degree in military studies. Read more ...

Jo Hook
Jo Hook

Jo Hook entered the world of battlefield touring having as a youngster listened to her father's Second World War stories and her mother's memories of living through the blitz in London. She also conducted tours for military units when she served within the Royal Corps of Signals as a reservist for eighteen years. Read more ...

Tony Smith
Tony Smith

Tony worked full time in various sales and marketing roles until 2011 when he sold his business to pursue more of a 'portfolio' career including part time university lecturing, being the Membership Secretary of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides and leading off road Land Rover tours. He was proud to achieve accredited status in the Guild in November 2012 and now spends more time guiding across the battlefields. Read more ...

Dudley Giles
Dudley Giles

Dudley Giles spent 34 years in the British Army where, as a military police officer, he gained operational experience in Ulster, the Balkans, Afghanistan and, of course, the Cold War. He has held a wide variety of command, staff and international appointments (including a two-year exchange tour with the Canadian Army) and has served in every type of formation headquarters from brigade to 5 star (HQ SHAPE). Read more ...

Peter Smith
Peter Smith

Peter is a member of the British Commission for Military History and the Western Front Association. His life has revolved around the Great War since he inherited his grandfather's medals and diary as a small boy. He grew up in East Yorkshire before joining the Territorial Army at 17. At 21 he decided he needed a little more action and joined the Royal Marines, a unit he served with for eleven years. Read more ...

Jon Haslock
Jon Haslock

Jon's interest in the First World War was sparked as a young boy listening to the stories of veterans in his village. His interest in the military and the Great War increased and blossomed when he researched his own relative's actions and became fascinated by the part that they played. This fuelled his interest which subsequently turned into a passion. Read more ... 

Andy Johnson
Andy Johnson

Andy’s interest in military aviation and military history started many years ago and, by the age of 12, he knew that he was going to join the RAF. That dream was realised in 1981, when he joined the RAF and 17 of his 28 years’ service saw him on duty in the Boeing Sentry AWACS, with operational flying in the Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq conflicts. Andy left the RAF in 2009 and became a full-time Battlefield Guide. Read more ...

Robin Burrows-Ellis
Robin Burrows-Ellis

Robin has always been passionate about history, archaeology, geography and travel. So naturally, being a battlefield guide is his ideal job. He started guiding whilst studying archaeology in the 1980s, conducting tours around various British archaeological sites of all periods. In 2009, Robin widened his guiding interests with town walks as a means of fundraising for charity. Read more ...

Allan Wood
Allan Wood

Allan is a Badged Member of and proud holder of Badge Number 66 of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides. He is also a member of the Western Front Association, Royal Lancers Regimental Association and a trustee of Dorset Yeomanry Association. Allan is a member of the Wessex Military History Group created to help local people hear military about wider military history. Read more ...

Susie Cooper
Susie Cooper

A passionate, hardworking, and diligent individual, Susie prides herself on her ability to get things done. A logical thinker, she can solve problems quickly and efficiently, whilst remaining professional, friendly, and approachable at all times. Unflappable, Susie remains calm in a crisis as evidenced by her actions at the scene of a road traffic accident in 2016 for which she was awarded a Commander Field Army’s commendation. Read more ...

Robert Shaw
Robert Shaw

Robert has an MSc in Global Security from Cranfield University and has been an active battlefield guide for more than 25 years. He is currently writing military history books on the SAS, SOE and the Cold War and is an accredited member of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides (Badge No 106). Read more ...

Edwin Popken
Edwin Popken

Active in various areas of military history, Edwin is an all-round military historian who is fluent in Dutch and English and is also proficient in German. He specifically focuses on the events in Northwestern Europe in the time period September 1944 to March 1945, which can be summarised as the Rhine Campaign. Read more ...

Eric Ratcliffe
Eric Ratcliffe

In 1975 Eric learned to fly gliders and light aircraft at an old WW2 US Air Force Bomber base where he began to get an interest in the history of the Allied Air Operations during the Second World War. This interest focused on the bases around East Anglia close to where he lives and he subsequently became involved in escorting groups of veterans and their families around their old wartime haunts. Read more ...

Adrian Ridley-Jones
Adrian Ridley-Jones

Adrian spent 16 years as a professional soldier in the British Army, both in the Infantry (Parachute Regiment) and then in the Royals Signals, serving mainly in Germany but also the Falklands. At the end of the Cold War, he joined a global company to utilise his technical skills, was Head of IT in a city organisation, a teacher and established and successfully ran his own company for 6 years. Read more ...

Mark Nicholas
Mark Nicholas

Having served for 30 years as a Royal Marines Commando, Mark Nicholas attained the Rank of Warrant Officer First Class (WO1). He has a lifelong passion for military history, and a holiday in Calvados sparked his interest in the magnitude of the initial phases of the D Day landings. Mark has now retired to the heart of Normandy, living within 30 minutes of the D Day landing area, and is one of our resident Normandy battlefield historians. Read more ...

Bob Darby
Bob Darby

Bob Darby has been guiding battlefields tours for some twenty years and took early retirement from a successful financial services career to concentrate on his passion – battlefield guiding! He is an accredited guide of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides and the holder of Badge No 29, a mark of competence awarded to him by his peers. Read more ...

Paul Oldfield
Paul Oldfield

Paul is a Badged Member of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides. He spent 36 years in the British Army, including operations in Ulster, the Balkans, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq. He held a wide variety of regimental and staff appointments from the lowest tactical level to the highest headquarters. This background gives him an insight into all matters military from the political direction of operations down to the slit trench. Read more ... 

Address
  • In The Footsteps Tours Limited
  • 5 Abbotts Close
  • Greytree
  • Ross-on-Wye
  • Herefordshire
  • HR9 7GQ
  • United Kingdom

  • Registered Number: 15460642

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