“If we’d known how good Rod was going
to be at this we’d have done it years ago!”
The Battlefields Experience Ltd was formed in 2000 by Rod and Jackie Bedford.
Borne out of a passion for military history, our goal is to provide the best Battlefield Experience available. Rod is from a military family and joined the Grenadier Guards as a boy soldier at fifteen. After serving nineteen years as an infantry soldier he was latterly an instructor at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Jackie has also served in the British Army, joining at seventeen, and serving in France and Germany. She can drive most military vehicles apart from tanks! Since 2001 our company HQ has been the Old Café Jourdain, on the Somme. Rod is our expert tour guide, whilst Jackie manages..well, everything else! “I love meeting people and chatting over dinner—it’s time for me to show off with my culinary skills, and I’m always looking for ways to make the rooms more charming and comfortable. We’re constantly reviewing what we do, but the main inspiration for us is the reaction we get from our guests, to be able to take somone to the ground where a relative fought, is an honour and our privilege.” Rod is Chairman of the Somme branch of the Royal British Legion, and also a member of The Sandhurst Foundation, a charitable organisation made up of serving and retired officers of the British Army, and those who have taught at the Academy. If you want trust, honesty, integrity and expertise in your choice of both Battlefield Tour Company and Guide, you will find none better.
The Australian 1st Division Memorial at Pozieres, Somme
THE BATTLEFIELDS EXPERIENCE
Le Vieux Café Jourdain, 2 Rue des Cordeliers
80560 Mailly Maillet, Somme, France
telephone and fax: 00 33 32 27 62 960