Jon Haslock

English, French

Jon is from the UK, but today, he's based in the heart of the Somme, his tea shop The Old Blighty sits a mere 100 metres from Lochnagar Crater. Jon Haslock has been interested in military history since he was young - his great grandfather was a casualty, so there were many family stories.

“My first actual visit to the Western Front was in 1991 on the way back from a trip to the south of France. We then started making regular and frequent visits to the region.” Jon says.

He then served as a reservist in the Territorial Army from 1995 to 1999.

In 2001, Jon enrolled as a mature student at Leeds University, graduating with a degree in History in 2004. It was in the following year that himself and his wife Alison, decided to make the big move to France, where they bought a property on the 1916 Somme battlefields, only a mere few hundred metres from the Lochnagar Crater. Since then, Jon has assisted archeologist teams, making some incredible discoveries in and around the area he lives in. For the last 11 years, Jon has been able to share his knowledge and findings, as a battlefield tour guide, where he initially worked for a local museum, before expanding more recently throughout France & Belgium.