Description
Object description
A pair of privately purchased desert boots worn by Stephen Brooks on several operations including Iraq (2004 and 2006), Afghanistan (2013 - 2014) and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq on Operation Shader (2014-2015). They have metal identity tags wound in to the laces and Brooks has written the names of places where he served on the soles.
The boots were first purchased by (then) Lieutenant Stephen Brooks (aged 25) for his first tour of Southern Iraq in 2004 with the 1st Battalion, The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment. Fear of losing his feet to an IED and not being able to identify which where his led him to attach the ID tags to his boots. The boots were then worn again in Basra, Southern Iraq, in 2006 by Captain Brooks (then aged 27) for his second tour with the same battalion as the Reconnaissance Officer and Battalion Adjutant (Senior Captain). Later, they accompanied Major Brooks to the Occupied Palestinian Territories of the West Bank of the River Jordan in 2008; on Operation Herrick in Afghanistan in 2013 and again in 2014.Finally the boots were used by Major Brooks when he was Officer Commanding C Company Group, COS HQ (UK), during Operation Shader, in the Kurdish Region of Northern Iraq in 2014 until 2015. Following that deployment Brooks retired the boots and recorded where he served while wearing them on the sole.
Physical description
A pair of privately purchased beige suede lace up desert boots worn by Stephen Brooks on several operations including Iraq (2004 and 2006), Operation Herrick in Afghanistan (2013-2014) and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq on Operation Shader (2014-2015). They have metal identity tags wound in to the laces and Brooks has written the names of places where he served on the soles in black pen.
Label
These boots and identity tags were worn by Major Stephen Brooks of 2nd Battalion, The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment when overseeing the training of Kurdish Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq. His fear of losing his feet to an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), when serving in Iraq for the first time in 2004, led him to attach the identity tags to the boots. On the soles he recorded where he served while wearing them.