|
Mat McLachlan
Mat McLachlan is one of Australia's leading war historians and battlefield guides,
and has spent more than a decade following in the footsteps of Australian troops on battlefields around
the world. His 2007 book, Walking with the Anzacs, is considered the definitive guide to
Australian battlefields on the Western Front.
It was reprinted in 2008. Mat also produced and appears in the First World War documentary Lost in
Flanders, airing on the ABC in 2009. His next book, Walking with the Anzacs: Gallipoli, will
be released in 2010 and will be the most comprehensive guide to the Australian battlefields of Gallipoli
yet published. He also appears regularly as a historian on the ABC, The History Channel and Channel 7's
Sunrise. Mat is the founder of Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tours and personally designs or escorts
all our tours.
|
|
|
Will Davies
Will Davies has been a documentary producer for over 30 years. He is a major
producer of historical programmes including When the War Came to Australia, Our Century
and Tales From a Suitcase.
In 2006 he produced a series of short films on the history of Norfolk Island and 30 short films on
relics in the Australian War Memorial. He is the author of five books including the bestseller
Somme Mud (editor) and In the Footsteps of Private Lynch and also wrote the driving tour
Villers-Bretonneux to le Hamel.
He is currently doing a PhD at the ANU in Canberra and is working on other books on the Great War.
Will is the historian on many of our Western Front tours.
|
|
|
Gary McKay
Gary McKay spent 30 years as an army officer after being conscripted for national
service in 1968. He served in South Vietnam in 1971 as an infantry rifle platoon commander where he was
awarded the Military Cross for gallantry and severely wounded in the last major Australian battle of the
Vietnam War. In 1987 Gary's best-selling autobiography In Good Company was released and he began
what is now a full-time career as a freelance historian and non-fiction writer. He is Australia's most
prolific author on the subject of the Vietnam War, having released 10 books with Allen & Unwin. He has
also written several other books, notably Tracy, the definitive account of the cyclone that wiped
out Darwin in 1974. There is no better guide to the Australian battlefields of Vietnam and we are fortunate
to have Gary as the historian on our Vietnam tours.
|
|
|
Brad Manera
After ten years as a historian at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Brad
Manera recently moved to Sydney to take up the role of Head Curator at Hyde Park Barracks Museum. Brad
has given lectures, seminar papers and illustrated talks on military history at museums and universities
around Australia and as far afield as the Imperial War Museum in London and the Royal Military College,
Sandhurst. He has published dozens of articles in Wartime (Official Magazine of the Australian
War Memorial), Sabretache (Journal of the Military Historical Society of Australia) and
Insites (Journal of the Historic Houses Trust, New South Wales.) Among his most recent
publications is a chapter on the Enrolled Pensioner Force in Escape: Fremantle to Freedom (2007)
and his own book Retimo Force, Crete May 1941 is nearing completion. Brad is the historian on our
Gallipoli tours.
|
|
|
Michael Molkentin
Michael Molkentin has had a life-long interest in the First World War. He is an
experienced History teacher and the author of Fire in the Sky: the Australian Flying Corps and the First
World War (Allen & Unwin). His work on Australian military history has also appeared in the
Journal of the Australian War Memorial, Wartime, Teaching History and Cross
and Cockade International. Michael was a featured contributor in the ABC documentary Lost in
Flanders and has been the recipient of research scholarships from the Australian War Memorial, the NSW
Government and the University of New South Wales. He is currently writing a doctoral thesis at the
Australian Defence Force Academy. Michael is a regular historian on our Western Front tours.
|
|
|
Richard Briggs
Richard Briggs has been a full-time London guide and tour manager since 2000 when he
qualified as a London Blue Badge Guide, the highest professional guiding certification in the UK. Apart from
his work in London and at special sites of interest in England, Richard has led tours throughout the UK and
Europe for groups of all ages. Having lived and worked in France, he speaks fluent French and has developed
a keen interest in the battlefields, from the Western Front of World War One to the D-Day Landing Beaches in
Normandy. Richard is a regular Tour Manager on our Western Front and D-Day tours.
|
|
|
Tom Morgan
Tom Morgan first learned about the Great War as a small child, listening to his
relatives' tales. It's perhaps because of this introduction that he became fascinated with the stories of
ordinary people in those extraordinary times, and with the battlefields themselves. Tom's Hellfire Corner
website was one of the first Great War sites on the web and has received over 2.5 million individual visitors
to date. Tom's professional background is in education, with a 35-year teaching career up to 1999, when he
became a full-time battlefield guide. Tom has a superb knowledge of the Australian battlefields and is the War
Historian on many of our Western Front tours.
|
|
|
Peter Smith
Peter’s 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. He is a prolific collector of Great War ephemera and photographs, many of which have been used
in related publications. In 2004 he moved to the Somme battlefields of France with his wife and children, where
he started a bed and breakfast in the historic village of Flers. He now works full time as a Great War guide and
researcher, specialising in Australian tours. Peter is a member of the British Commission for Military History,
the Guild of Battlefield Guides and the Western Front Association. He is the historian on many of our Western
Front tours.
|
|
|
Michael Peters
Mike Peters is a serving British Army officer with 30 years of military service in the
Army Air Corps. Commissioned from the ranks, he has served on operations in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Iraq
and Afghanistan. Mike is a badged member of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides with a lifelong
passion for military history. He is a regular writer for Soldier Magazine (official magazine of the
British Army) and his first book, Glider Pilots At Arnhem, was published in 2009. He has also appeared
on Battlefield History TV in several films about The Great War and life on the Western Front. Mike is an
experienced battlefield guide who will always strive to tell you the story from the soldier’s point of view, and
is a regular historian on our Western Front tours.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
