Hello all, I'm Sophie your guide.  A graduate in military history from the University of Birmingham, I have studied, toured and guided on the Western Front battlefields for the last 15 years.  I have built up an extensive knowledge of the Great War and I look forward to sharing it with you.

I first made my way to the Western Front, the Somme in fact, at the tender age of just five months old! My parents had taken me with them to commemorate the beginning of the Battle of the Somme.  Perhaps that is where my love of military history began? I grew up with a Dad that was passionate about all things First World War, and when most young girls were singing along to the latest pop sensation, I was in wellies exploring the famous fields of Flanders.

There were 16 Shrubsoles killed in the Great War, eight of them on the Somme.  Five on them have their names engraved at Thiepval, the memorial to the missing of the Somme, and two can be found on the Menin Gate.  Whenever I'm in Ypres, I always make my way to the Hooge Crater Cemetery, as there lies Walter Frederick Shrubsole, killed in March 1918 and who came from the village in which I grew up.

Sophie's Great War Tours is a family-run business and my Dad plays a pivotal role in all small bespoke tours as our personal chauffeur.  His knowledge of artillery pieces and the weapons of war often come in handy as we roam across the land!