Battlefield Tour Guides & Historians

Bruce Cherry has been leading and planning battlefield tours since the late 1980s. He counts among his most memorable tours taking Royal Winnipeg Rifles Juno Beach veterans on a 'Normandy to the Scheldt' commemorative tour and veterans of the 100th BN 442 Infantry Regiment (the USA's most decorated unit) back to the Vosges and Hill 104. Bruce has a PhD in Military History and has most recently published a study on Sex and Morale in the Great War.

Bob has been guiding on the battlefields of the world for some 25 years. After military service with the Parachute Regiment he followed this with over 6 years spent in the service of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos of Oman. His military experience includes service during Op Corporate, the recovery of the Falkland Islands with 3 rd Bn The Parachute Regiment as well as service in Northern Ireland. After retiring from a successful Financial Services company in 2005 he has pursued a further career as a Battlefield Guide/Historian. He has worked with and toured at Higher Command level with the British Army as well as leading and writing Battle Studies and Tours for Junior Staff.

Originally commissioned into The Gordon Highlanders, Rob served for twenty years as an infantry officer in the British Army seeing active service in Northern Ireland, Iraq, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan. After the Army he worked as a humanitarian programme manager and director in Africa focussing on clearing Explosive Remnants of War from the battlefield and rehabilitating child soldiers. He has a lifelong interest in military history. Together with his military and humanitarian experience and a Master’s degree in Military Strategic Studies, he has a solid professional grounding in the theory, conduct and impact of war. He brings this experience to his battlefield tours, offering clients a soldier and humanitarian’s understanding of the battlefield.

Colonel Peter Knox OBE was commissioned from Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, into the Royal Welch Fusiliers and travelled widely during his thirty-year military career. He is a graduate of the Army Staff College and was appointed an Officer of the British Empire at the end of his tenure as a battalion commanding officer. A keen student of military history and a son of a Normandy veteran, he has researched and conducted battlefield tours throughout Europe including the Crimea. He aims to bring the battlefields alive, using personal accounts of those who fought there. He is a trustee of the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum, former Chairman of The Crimean War Research Society and a member of the British Commission for Military History.

Mark has served with the British Parachute Regiment for 24 years, conducting numerous Operational tours through his career. He has also instructed at PARA recruit training alongside training Infantry Platoon Commanders at the Infantry Training Centre. An expert in Airborne Operations covering WW2 onwards for all key nations. He has an extensive military collection and is a published author on Britain’s Airborne Forces in WW2. Regularly assists and educates the British Army, museums and collectors in terms of Airborne Forces.

Piers Storie-Pugh’s career can be summarized as follows: The Army, Remembrance Worldwide and Service Charities. He was described by The Daily Telegraph as “a  tireless ambassador for happiness”. He trained at Mons and Sandhurst Officer Cadet Schools and served in 1st Battalion The Queen’s Regiment (Lieutenant and Captain) in   Germany, Canada, Denmark, West Belfast during The Troubles and The German Parachute School in Bavaria. He is qualified with both British and German parachute wings having   also served with the 10th Parachute Battalion.  After leaving the Regular Army he continued his military service with the Territorial Army. He commanded his own battalion for three   years and was then appointed Deputy   Commander 2nd Infantry Brigade in the rank of Full Colonel and concurrently Deputy President of the Territorial Commissioning Board at Westbury.  He was appointed ADC (Aide de   Camp) to Her Majesty the Queen and then the Reserve Forces representative on the Control Board of the Army Benevolent Fund   the Soldiers Charity. Piers Storie-Pugh was awarded the MBE (Mil) for services to the Army and the OBE (Civ) for his work in the area of International Remembrance. 

As a camp follower of an army officer father and army officer husband, Sue developed an interest in military history and battlefields. Her grandfather served with the Royal Horse Artillery in WW1 and her father with the Gordon Highlanders at the tail end of the Second World War. She has lived in several areas of ongoing conflict: Cyprus; Northern Ireland; Berlin and Korea where she was involved with the groups of returning Korean war veterans and their families on pilgrimage visits. She spent four years in the United States, visited 37 states and various American Civil War (and other) battlefields.  With her father and husband, she has lived in several parts of northern Germany. A qualified teacher, with a BA Hons in Philosophy and politics, a PGCE, and an MPhil in History of Art, Sue qualified as a City of London Guide in 2007 and a London Blue Badge Tourist Guide in 2009.

She is accredited to guide many prestigious sites with battlefield connections such as the Tower of London, Windsor Castle, Churchill War Rooms, IWM, NAM, HMS Belfast, Dover Castle, Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral, Durham Cathedral, York Minster, Canterbury Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral, Rochester Cathedral, Hadrian’s Wall, several more castles. Sue has developed a wide range of walks and tours in London, and beyond, with war related themes such as the Duke of Wellington, Sir Winston Churchill, Blitzed Brits, WW1 and WW2 walks, Battle of Britain, The Art and Literature of War, Castles and Conflicts etc.

In England, she has led tours connected to the Romans in Britain, Wars of the Roses, The English Civil War and Jacobite Rebellions. In France and Belgium, she has been involved as a guide in tours associated with the First World War poets and particularly with the war experiences of Wilfred Owen.

Second World War tours include sites connected to the Battle of Britain, the D Day Museum at Portsmouth, associated embarkment sites of allied troops, Bletchley Park, and several sites connected to specialist units such as the secret auxiliary units and commandos. She is a regular visitor to the D Day landing beaches in Normandy.

Brian Shaw is an Ex Warrant Officer in the Parachute Regiment who has been leading battlefield tours for the past twenty five years. Born in Nottingham in 1958 he joined the Army in 1974 as a Junior Soldier. Progressing through a busy career finishing as a Warrant Officer Class 1 in 1995.  Brian continued to serve before retiring from the Army in January 2013 after 38 years’ service.

Brian has had 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.

Brian has a long-held interest in military history, particularly the Second World War. Brian 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.