Ceremonies at Tamworth Castle Grounds will pay tribute to all Staffordshire Regiment soldiers lost since 1885

A bronze memorial honouring Staffordshire Regiment soldiers killed in Iraq will be unveiled at Tamworth Castle Grounds tomorrow (Sat).

The ‘Oaths Taken, Oaths Fulfilled’ memorial was created to honour three soldiers killed in Iraq on Operation Telic 6 in 2005. 

The ‘Staffordshire 3’ – 2nd Lt Richard Shearer, Private Leon Spicer and Private Phillip Hewett – died when their vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device in Al Amarah. 

Two other soldiers, Private Steve Baldwin and Private Epeli “Pex” Uluilakeba, were severely injured in the attack.

Fundraising by surviving armed forces colleagues 

The memorial comes after comrades of the fallen spent two and a half years raising the around £50,000 needed to commission the work. 

Fundraising efforts included three veterans climbing to Everest base camp, former Staffordshire Regiment soldiers cycling from Whittington Barracks to Arnhem, skydives, sponsored walks, concerts and merchandise sales.

Representing the three fallen soldiers

The monument is a three-foot-tall bronze sculpture that features three Staffordshire knots, three infantry bayonets and the Prince of Wales plumes, each representing one of the three soldiers killed.

It is encircled by the Prince of Wales coronet in recognition of the then Prince Charles’s role as Colonel of the Regiment.

A bronze remembering all soldiers lost since 1885

Also being unveiled is the Watchman memorial, a bronze piece representing all the regiment’s Watchman mascots and those lost in service since 1885. 

Both memorials were designed by Johanna Domke-Guyot, the sculptor behind the Victory over Blindness statue outside Manchester Piccadilly, and cast by Bronze Age Fine Art Foundry in London.

The unveiling ceremony takes place at around 12pm on Saturday.