A Historic Podcast with 2 Excellent History Tour Guides!

Who are Trevor Booker and Tony Smith?

‘It was about following up the stories of the men from the past.’

Tony Smith, History Tour Guide

Engaging young people with stories from the past and personalising their tour

It was clear to see that both men are incredibly passionate about history – give them a day of your time and your knowledge database in their historical areas will be all the richer for it!

But something that they’re keen to provide to students who they tour with is engagement through stories of the past. To put a lens on the gravity of the situation by connecting them to an individual and personalising the visit so the raw emotion and history resonates.

Tony talked about teachers finding their relatives, a girl in floods of tears after finding her relative’s grave and on that same tour another student discovering their long lost relative’s resting place.

‘But as we were leaving, another boy noticed a name on a gravestone that sounded familiar and he said “I’m sure that’s the name of my family”. He got on the phone to his grandma and she told him that was his long-lost relative.’

Tony Smith, History Tour Guide

A safe space for students to talk about events of the past

With the areas both men focus on, it’s inevitable that difficult, tragic, and challenging topics will come up in conversation.

But both are experts at managing those delicate chats with the respect and space they deserve. When the retelling of the past is so deeply centred on a huge loss of life it can be hard to comprehend for students.

However, they make comparisons with subjects they are likely to have an interest in – like football – and they do it perfectly for students looking to learn from the mistakes of the past.

‘History matters. You can’t alter it – it’s happened. What you’ve got to do is learn from it.’

Trevor Booker, History Tour Guide

Humanising both sides and opening up different lanes of thinking…

It’s when Trevor and Tony use both sides to show the massive death toll that it suddenly starts to open up different lanes of thinking.

You probably know all too well of the neat and well-kept cemeteries of the Allied forces – where each man has his own grave. But with German graves, mass burials were common – but not for the reason you might think.

They were there because German culture at the time said soldiers were lying with their brothers in arms. And this is something both History Tour Guides get across in such a respectful, engaging and educational way – which they also do alongside the amount of people who died, comparing the number of deaths to the number of people in a school to really bring the weight home.

Such experiences and stories, all whilst standing in the place, make it all the more impactful.

They bring untold logistical, network and practical savviness too

Touring the sites as often as Trevor and Tony means they’ve created a vast array of deep and useful relationships with which to call on – as well as knowing their way around.

Stories abound of getting last minutes wreaths for ceremonies, tweaking itineraries to optimise tours and hearing of new discoveries from locals that heighten and enhance their knowledge.

‘If you visit as many sites as we know you build a rapport over the years and you get rewarded at the end of the day with more information if something local has happened – like a new discovery.’

Trevor Booker, History Tour Guide

And they continually hone their craft too…

Both are members of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides and are constantly searching for new information and ways to hone their HTG skills.

To this end, they both go out in groups of guides to better their understanding of sites and memorials and moments from the past, so they can reengage and retell those stories in a fresh way.

The skills and knowledge both hold and their desire to continually refine and polish their skills is something else entirely.

‘As a guide there’s always something that comes out the woodwork – we’re always willing to learn and we spark off each other and how the stories unfold!’

Trevor Booker, History Tour Guide

Understanding your classes different backgrounds to personalise tours further

Both are advocates of really bringing the international impact of war and the many different and diverse cultures it affected.

When they know of a tour or schools background, they often – where possible – research to see if they can connect that class to a site, memorial or an exhibit in a museum, much like recognising women’s huge and incredible contribution to WW1 or visiting the Neuve Chappele Indian War Memorial when a classes ancestry links to those areas.

It brings the class closer to the story. It’s no longer just a distant war fought by distant people. It’s the classes great uncle or the lost grave of a great grandparent that no-one in the family has visited before.

‘We like to find out the background of the school and their ancestry as we can tailor the tour to visit specific sites. I toured with a class recently where their heritage was Indian. So we went to the Neuve-Chapelle Indian Memorial – it gets everyone involved.’

Tony Smith, History Tour Guide

Individual stories to create lasting, poignant moments

Undoubtedly the most lasting and emotional moments on tour are when your students can connect with their relatives by having a poignant chat with their gravestone.

These tie in with putting a focus on individual people who your students can connect with. A lens to place their own family alongside the wider, sometimes difficult to comprehend, context of a World War.

‘I always leave them with the headstone. They’re pretty embarrassed at first but normally we get their best friends to sit with them and I take away the whole school – and leave them there to talk.’

Trevor Booker, History Tour Guide

There’s even more stories to bring history home…

Trev and Tony are bursting with anecdotes and connections to the events of the World Wars – with literary references playing a strong and emotionally raw part.

There’s a plethora of references to well-known poets and works of literature that feature in their deep and rich knowledge.

Authors like:

• Siegfried Sasson
• Robert Graves
• Wilfried Owens
• Rupert Brooke
• Rudyard Kipling
• And even the gravestone of the soldier who inspired Peter Pan

And what’s even more impressive, and allowing students to connect and engage even further, is your class can visit the place some of these authors referenced.

One of the most standout and poignant moments is asking a student to read a poem whilst at a memorial, like ‘In Flanders Fields’, which provides a deeply resonant and lasting moment for all involved.

‘It’s really emotional seeing a student read out a poem – they do it with such respect. It’s a very heartfelt experience.’

Nicky Astle, Rayburn Tours

And their most impactful place to visit is?

With a tragic amount to choose from, Tony picked the battle for the Ypres Salient and how so much life was lost fighting over a little bit of land.

Whereas Trev noted how Sachsenhausen and the atrocities and the stark, difficult retelling of those stories really hits home for students.

‘Sachsenhausen in Berlin and when you realise what man did to man…’

Trevor Booker, History Tour Guide

Finally, what are the benefits of a History Tour Guide?

We’re HUGE advocates of History Tour Guides as they bring home the power of history and connect and engage your students with poignant, relevant and comparable stories to really bring it all to life.

They do it with their own vast knowledge, props, logistical savviness and understanding what works best for each group to give that impact and insight and emotion.

‘I think it’s worthwhile having a History Tour Guide because of our knowledge and the personal stories we can deliver.’

Trevor Booker, History Tour Guide