Mat McLachlan is a leading Australian historian, author and television presenter. A journalist by trade, Mat worked for 15 years as a writer and editor before dedicating himself fulltime to his passion, military history. Mat participated in escorting US Secretary of State, Senator John Kerry, on his visit to Guadalcanal, and co-hosted the national television coverage of President Obama’s visit to Australia’s capital city, Canberra.

Mat is also an author, with his first military history book, Walking with the Anzacs, published in 2007, and his second, Gallipoli: The Battlefield Guide, published in 2010. Mat appears regularly on Australian television as a history presenter and commentator. He produced and appeared in the 2009 ABC documentary Lost in Flanders and also appeared in the four-part documentary series Tony Robinson’s WWI and appears regularly on The History Channel and Australian commercial TV channels and radio.

In 2015 Mat founded ‘Australians Joining Forces’ – a private social enterprise that seeks ethical investments to support programmes for contemporary Australian Defence Force (ADF) veterans transitioning from the armed forces to the civilian work place and community. Mat McLachlan Battlefields is also a proud supporter of the MVAT Foundation whose mission is to provide for American’s veterans where other resources have proven to be insufficient.

David Howell is an Australian based historian, author and tour guide. Growing up with the stories of the war in Papua New Guinea (PNG) from his grandfather, David has made over 50 crossings of the famous Kokoda Track along with visiting most of the major battlefields in PNG. David previously worked at the Shrine of Remembrance in Victoria, Australia where he created their journal, Remembrance. He is a serving member of the Army Reserve and has deployed on peacekeeping operations.

David will be leading our PNG Trek Kokoda and Beachhead Extension tours

Chuck Searcy is a US Army veteran of the Vietnam War who has expansive knowledge of the history of the wars in Vietnam and has lived there permanently for more than 20 years. After first returning to Vietnam in 1992 as a tourist, then working for an American veterans’ organizations since 1995, Searcy is now an International Advisor to Project RENEW in Quang Tri Province. Searcy is currently vice president of the Vietnam chapter of Veterans for Peace, and a lifetime member of Vietnam Veterans of America. He is co-chair of the NGO Agent Orange Working Group. In 2003 he was awarded Vietnam’s highest honour for a foreigner, the Friendship Medal.

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.

For the next 14 years Peter worked in the print industry, finally as the sales director for a Dorset based company.

In 2004 he moved to the Somme battlefields of France, where he started a bed and breakfast in the historic village of Flers.

He now works full time as a historian, battlefield guide and researcher, with his expertise encompassing the British, Australian and American experience and battlefields of the western front.

Peter is a member of various associations; Guild of Battlefield Guides, Western Front Association, European Tour Operators Association, British Commission for Military History, and is a Friend of the Australian War Memorial.

Peter is also a prolific collector of Great War ephemera and photographs, many of which have been used in related publications He is the historian on many of our Western Front tours.

Unlike most other people with a passion for the Great War, Tim has Disneyland Paris to thank for the start of his journey.

It was during a trip to Disneyland Paris over 20 years ago that Tim passed through Ypres and witnessed the Last Post Ceremony, an event that would change his life forever.

From that point, he spent any spare time that he had, visiting the WW1 battlefields of France and Flanders, walking the ground he had read about and gaining a full understanding of the events that will be etched in the history books forever.

After many years of visiting the battlefields came the realisation that "you only live once" Tim and his wife decided to purchase a property in the heart of the Somme battlefields, give up the corporate treadmill and start living the dream.

Tim, a glass half full person with a zest for life, has been carrying out research and guiding groups large and small around the battlefields of France & Flanders for many years, sharing his passion and knowledge with anyone who wants to listen.

He is a member of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides, the European Tour Operators Association and also in his own words “had the privilege of being the first chairman of the new Somme branch of the Western Front Association”