Interview: Tom Wood
Picture: Kit Houghton

THE Queen’s back garden will play host to charging Scimitars, marching bands and galloping horses as the Windsor Castle Royal Tattoo returns this month.

But behind the smoke of mock firefights lies a serious message and the real reason that Territorial Army officer Col Simon Brooks-Ward is staging the military spectacle for the third successive year.

“Our mission here is to educate through entertaining the public at the event or through the media. It’s not just about fulfilling my own aspirations and ambitions, it’s all about providing visibility of the troops involved and what they represent,” he told Soldier from his Windsor office.

Col Brooks-Ward is no stranger to the realities of war having seen action in Iraq in 2003 as CO of The Royal Yeomanry, the first TA regiment to receive a battle honour since the Second World

War.
He has also experienced first-hand the lukewarm reception that soldiers faced when returning home from deployments during the early days of Op Telic.

“When I came back from Iraq we were swept under the carpet, it was an unpopular war with some sections of society and we weren’t really acknowledged,” he explained.

But things have improved since then and Col Brooks-Ward first had the idea for a military show at a time when the public were starting to get behind returning troops and developing an understanding of the challenges they were facing in a war being played out thousands of miles from home.

He decided to surf the wave of general support and organise the Tattoo to strengthen the growing bond between society and the military by showcasing soldiers’ skills on a grand stage.

“It’s all very well putting on a marching band, but if you don’t back that up with substance which shows that the musician has other capabilities and skills, then why bother having that band in the arena?” said Col Brooks-Ward.

“The pipes and drums, for instance, are infantrymen full-time and pipers part-time so they have a job to do on operations along with everyone else.”

In civilian life Col Brooks-Ward is the managing director of the HPower Group, an events company which has been the driving force behind numerous public shows of a military and equestrian nature, so he is perfectly placed to organise the Windsor Tattoo.

But things weren’t as straightforward when he was on operations. He admitted: “It was difficult to run a business from 3,500 miles away in a hot conflict zone but it provided the type of challenge I was looking for from the TA.”

When back in combats, Col Brooks-Ward is in charge of TA officer training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst where he concentrates on making a “more effective and efficient pipeline” through which potential officers pass.

His goal is to get more people into the TA so they can appreciate the benefits that a part-time Service career will give them in their civilian lives.

With the Windsor Castle Royal Tattoo now looking set to be a permanent annual fixture, Col Brooks-Ward provided a reminder of the vital role it plays in connecting the Armed Forces with the man on the street.

He said: “We can’t predict what the public’s attitude will be in the future. All we can do is perpetuate the goodwill that exists towards troops at the moment and use this event to strengthen that feeling.”