Ian is the cofounder of In The Footsteps and our CEO. He is a full-time professional military historian and guide, a member of the Battlefields Trust, Society for Army Historical Research (SAHR), Western Front Association and Last Post Association.

As a battlefield historian and retired Army officer, Ian is able to add a soldier's perspective to the tours he leads.

“Military history is my passion and showing people around the battlefields is what I love to do.”

Ian endeavours to maintain the high levels of good practice and standard of service commensurate with In The Footsteps' ethos. In 2020 he was the winner of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides prestigious 'Will Townend' Award, an award voted upon by the Guild's membership, recognising his contribution to the IGBG. He is also a former Chair and accredited (badged) member of the IGBG.

Ian has led tours for over twenty years following the battles of the Norman Conquest, Hundred Years' War, War of the Roses, Peninsula War, Waterloo Campaign, Anglo-Zulu War, First World War and Second World War, and has visited battlefields in Austria, Belgium, France, German, Great Britain, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Russia, Spain, South Africa, The Netherlands and Turkey.

“I am extremely privileged to be able to take people to battlefields around the world ‘following in the footsteps’ of an ancestor or relative on a genealogy tour, or a battle or military unit on a more general tour.”

Ian served in the British Armed Forces with the Territorial Army and Army Reserve for over thirty years. He had the privilege of commanding B (Rorke's Drift) Company of the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Wales (24th/41st Foot) and the honour of commanding the Royal Regiment of Wales contingent at the affiliation parade with 121st South African Infantry Battalion. He also served as a Company Commander and the Training Major with the Wales University Officer Training Corps. In the latter years of his military career Ian served as a Staff Officer in a variety of roles in 160th Infantry Brigade and Headquarters Wales and designed and led Battlefield Studies for the Brigade and several other British Army units.

“I have also had the honour of leading Military Units on Battlefield Studies and Staff Rides retracing the steps of their predecessors at some of the most important historical sites that have shaped the world in which we live.”

For the five years of the Centenary of the First World War, Ian sat on the Welsh Government’s Cymru’n Cofio Committee that led the Welsh National Commemoration events for the First World War Centenary. He was the Staff Officer appointed to oversee the military contribution to these commemorative events and co-ordinate and control the military component. In this role he worked closely with the Welsh Government in the deliverance of their overseas and home-based commemorations including the 2017 Commemoration at the Welsh Memorial near Langemarck where he had the honour of being part of the official party introduced to His Majesty King Charles III, then the Prince of Wales.

Ian also held the post of Deputy Colonel Cadet in Wales, supporting both ACF and CCF units throughout the principality, and was the lead for the Cadet Reflect project in Wales that saw ACF and CCF units competed against each other in an annual competition presenting information they had researched about their ‘local heroes’. The winning entries visited the First World War battlefields throughout the Commemorative period and got to tell the story of their ‘local heroes’ on the ground where they fought. He also led cadet Remembrance tours during the First World War Centenary that saw them parade at the Menin Gate on Remembrance Day.