Born in Belfast in 1971, the son of a soldier, I grew up in Germany, England and Northern Ireland.

After leaving school in 1988 I followed in my father’s footsteps and joined the army as a Junior Apprentice into the Royal Signals. Transferring to the Royal Military Police in 1990 I have served in many different theatres of operations such as Germany, UK, Northern Ireland, Nepal, Bosnia, Kosovo, Sardinia, Norway, Egypt, Falkland Islands, Sierra Leone, Canada and Belgium.

I have always had a passionate interest of Military History and have endeavored to travel to many historical locations on my travels with the army, often leading groups of soldiers on Military History orientated tours. These have included El Alamein, Mount Tumbledown, Mount Longdon, Goose Green, Lake Doiran, Jajce, Ypres, The Somme and many more.

Following a two year posting to Supreme Headquaters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) outside Mons in Belgium I concentrated hard on honing my knowledge of the First World War. The first shot fired in anger by the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in August 1914, was fired about 400 meters outside the gates of the Barracks where I was stationed. With Ypres being about 70 Miles away and the Somme, 80 miles away I spent all of my free time visiting the battlefields, gaining knowledge, leading tours and also making use of my Private Pilots License to fly over the Battlefields taking photographs and filming.

Since March 2005 I have operated my own battlefield tour company. It has been a never ending learning curve and a privilege to study the history of the men and women who served during the Great War. I currently guide tours covering the Western Front from top to bottom and also the WW1 Palestine campaign. As well as conducting my own private battlefield tours I also guide WW1 tours for Leger Holidays, Rifleman Tours, Battlefield Select Tours and Somme Battlefield Tours Ltd.

As well as guiding I also offer my services to Companies / Organisations looking for WW1 historical consultation and research. I have contributed to various BBC News articles concerning the Great War and Remembrance, including contributing towards the BBC "My Family At War" (2008), BBC News Remembrance 90 (2008). I am also a member of a team of First War historians who carry out archival and archaeological studies of locations on the battlefields, filming them for documentaries. Some of our past work has included a study of a WW1 Dugout known as “Vampir” (Channel 4 Time Team Special and The History Channel, 2008) and a study on the use of Livens' Large Gallery Flame Projector (Time Team Special and The History Channel, 2011). I am also a member of the team who raised funds and built the memorial to the British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand Tunnelling Companies. The Tunnellers Memorial stands next to the 55th (West Lancashire) Divisions memorial at Givenchy Lez La Bassee and overlooks the site of the only Tunnellers VC action of the war.

I am a co-founder of the La Boisselle Study Group, set up to conduct a lengthy archival and archaeological study of the fighting in, around and under the village of La Boisselle on the Somme.

I am in the process of writing two books on WW1. The first focuses on the history of 177 Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers 1915 to 1919. The second
is a joint venture with an American fine arts photographer Jeff Gusky MD and is a series of black and white captioned photographs looking at the remaining scars of WW1 on the battlefields today.

Please visit my links and photographs page for further information about on going projects.

I hope you take the time to look through and enjoy my website.

Iain McHenry