Your Personalised Private Battlefield Tour

A trip to the battlefields of the First or Second World War is an incredibly special time and can be a profoundly moving experience.

Sophie’s personalised tours are completely tailor-made for you. Your battlefield experience will reflect your interests, be they following in the footsteps of a relative or regiment. We travel at your pace and we explore the destinations you really want to get to know.

Would you like to include additional experiences to your battlefield tour? Why not enjoy the produce of the Loire or Champagne, take a classic car tour through Provence, or finish up relaxing on a yacht in the south of France? Every element of your tour is customisable so contact Sophie today to discuss your very own battlefield tour experience.

How does it work?

Let us know which destinations you are keen to explore. How many days would you like to be away? How many people would like to come with you? Would you also like to include other visits to non-military sites across Europe? Once we know what type of tour you are looking for, the team at Sophie’s Great War Tours will put together the perfect itinerary for you.

Ancestry Tours

Do you have a relative that served in the First World War? Have you always wanted to follow in their footsteps and learn more about their experiences?

Sophie’s Great War Tours can take you on that very special journey, visiting the villages your relative would have camped in, following his journey into battle and uncovering what he would have faced 100 years ago.

If your relative was killed, we can visit either his grave or see his name inscribed upon a local memorial so that you may pay your respects.

Case Study - Private Powell, Royal Warwickshire Regiment

When I receive information about a soldier—sometimes just a name, but ideally rank and regiment as well—by his surviving relatives, I am able to dig through a range of sources to piece together the story from his signing up to coming home, or—sadly in many cases—being killed in action.  

One of the men I traced recently was James Powell of Birmingham.  His granddaughter, who had got in touch with me, had grown up listening to his war stories but they were incomplete, confused and often rather graphic.  She wanted to know more and so she sent to me his details and a photograph of him marching down a road in France in April 1918.  It was her big wish to find that road and go to spot where the photograph was taken exactly 100 years on. 

I spent a week or so poring over the battalion war diaries, which allowed me to build a timeline and trace the route that James would have taken around France and Belgium.  It materialised that James had fought a rear-guard action in the German Spring Offensive of 1918 and had found himself in a number of the Western Front’s toughest spots.   

With this in mind, I put together the battlefield tour for James’s granddaughter and on 8th April 2018, we arrived at the exact spot where James had his photograph snapped 100 years earlier to the very day. I know that this was a hugely special moment for her, and it was a privilege for me to be a part of it and to help bring it to life for her.

First World War Research Work

If you’ve always wanted to know more about a family member who fought in the First World War, then Sophie can help you with her research skills and access to original sources. For just £150, she can produce a professional report which provides as much detail as possible into the life and military service of your relative. Using a range of sources, she can bring together the bigger picture of his life and experiences in the First World War.

Get in touch with Sophie with you relative’s name and any other information you have and she will start the detective work for you.