I had the great pleasure of receiving the following soon after returning to the battlefields of France and Belgium with Mike and Amber Stokes, Mike has visited before but this was Amber’s first time and here are her thoughts and impressions. My interest in World War One was most significantly ignited by having to read…
Taking people on battlefield tours is enormously rewarding; to help a modern-day generation ‘contact’ a distant relative who fought in a past conflict, is still the highlight of many a battlefield tour. It allows you to reach out and ‘touch’ a piece of family history and answers many questions. I had such a moment recently…
Since 1952, The Queen has conferred many honours and awards; the first investiture of the Queen’s reign took place at Buckingham Palace on 27th February 1952, just three weeks into her reign, when the first person to be presented to her was Private Bill Speakman, who received the Victoria Cross for his actions during the Korean…
I am not sure if the so-called legacy of the London 2012 Olympics really happened, but it started me thinking about soldiers and the Olympics. Following the 1912 Summer Olympics, at which a young George S. Patton, later General Patton of World War Two fame, came fifth in the Modern Pentathlon, the 1916 Summer Olympics…
The relationship between war and the film industry needs little explanation. The war film has long been a favourite and was often Sunday afternoon entertainment on the telly – even if we did watch a film for the tenth time! With titles like ‘The Eagle Has Landed’ and ‘A Bridge Too Far’ they have covered,…
It is with great sadness that recently the last known surviving veteran of World War One, Claude Choules, died at the age of 110. Many of us will identify with Harry Patch who died in 2009, as the last known ‘Tommy’ to fight in the trenches of World War One; but Claude Choules is now seen…
The motivation and drive for doing a battlefield tour can be varied and for many reasons, to visit the campaigns and battles of past family members; to pay respect to the deeds of past generations of soldiers and to look where your own regiment, or brigade, took part in key actions are some. But, recently…
Many of you who have joined me on battlefield tours will know about my love of working dogs, the fact I own a number of working English Springer Spaniels and how I have told the story about animals serving in both World Wars, plus the story of the Dickin Medal, which is the Animal’s Victoria…
To visit the place a relative, or loved one, fought and to try to understand what they endured is one of the most popular reasons for a battlefield tour, and recently it was this reason that Mike and Claudia Houpt travelled from Mississippi to Normandy. Mike’s wife Claudia wanted to visit Omaha as her father…
With the fast transport system, from England to France and Belgium, it is now so easy to visit the battlefields of The Western Front from World War One. Nevertheless, it is also easy to forget that so many Commonwealth Countries sent soldiers who fought there, even today it is not always easy for their relatives…