H-Hour Icebreaker - Jacob Lockwood

Join the H-Hour community at https://patreon.com/hkpodcasts ***** For this Icebreaker with Jacob Lockwood, I welcome him for a punchy patron Q&A ahead of the full episode, where we get into the attitudes, scars, and humour that sit behind the man and the brand. We talk about his feelings about missing Afghanistan, the old-school Para culture of calling people “crap hats,” his biggest military highlight delivering 556 individually named Christmas presents to orphanages in Kenya, and the chaos of gate-crashing the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee parade in full blues. Jacob also opens up on mental health in the Army — the good of mess culture and mates looking after mates, but also how welfare systems can be gamed — and finishes by explaining why content, story, and authenticity are what separate veteran brands that succeed from those that don’t. https://lockwoodsmocks.com/ https://www.instagram.com/lockwood_smocks/

This episode is sponsored by Sin Eaters Guild - sineatersguild.co.uk

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

If you are new to Hey Hour and you are here because Jacob has has brought you here, like the Pied Piper of Hamlet. He has led you to Hey Chour because you want to listen and watch uh what Jacob's got to say. Uh then um be aware that this is this is kind of like a prequel to the full podcast. This is called Hey H Hour Icebreaker. It's gonna be about 20 minutes long. I'm gonna be asking, I'm gonna be asking him questions which have been submitted by Hey subscribe Hour patrons, HR subscribers basically, have submitted questions specifically for him, which is what I will do now and ask him a Q ⁇ A session, basically, a little prequel. Then the episode will finish, but in your podcast app, whether YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, whatever, the next episode in the HR feed will be but the full podcast with Jacob. So, and that is uh that is long form, about two hours long. Probably it's gonna be where we're gonna be discussing all sorts. We're gonna be digging deep into his life, into the emotions. That's him laughing in the background. We're gonna get all the skeletons in the closet are gonna be coming out. They're my skeletons, there's fucking loads of them. I don't know about him. Anyway, that is that is it. Welcome, welcome to Hey Chower, Mr. Lockwood.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

It's good to have you, mate.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

It's good to have you. Um are you not wearing the hat?

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Yeah, well, we are in time, but yeah, flipping heck alive. I mean, these are controversial at the moment, let me tell you. But um, I mean, they say there's no such thing as bad publicity, is there?

SPEAKER_02 1:30

We'll get on to that.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

But yeah, people, for the most part, are not very happy with them. They think they're ridiculous, but they are selling, so it just takes a certain type of person to be comfortable to wear them. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

All right, so questions for you. What have we got here?

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Let's have that's the question, isn't it? What are the questions?

SPEAKER_02 1:52

Okay, we're gonna go on to Coke's questions first. You're already aware of Coke conversation because you mentioned him to me and said, Who's this? Who's your most loyal fan, this Coke guy? Um, he'll be happy with that. He'll be happy with that. Okay, question one, which is from Coke. Uh, have you made or come close to making a mistake that severely hurt or killed someone? We'll talk about the business leader.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

You know what? Um probably say thankfully not. Um I've probably come close to getting myself done in a couple of times. Um, you know, delivery stuff I was telling you about, a shady night in the nukey. Um, but yeah, no, thankfully not. Because I think I joined at a a point where um, you know, I at the time I was gutted, but I missed my battalion's last proper fighting tour in Afghanistan. And at the time I was gutted by that, but then as the years have gone by, I've kind of sort of went through the phase of feeling guilty for being sort of uh you know, feeling like I missed it was probably a good thing, and then now I'm at a point where you know I've seen the scars that that's left on people, and it's like, you know, I feel very fortunate that I did miss that, which I think that's probably not something that most people would would admit to saying. Um but yeah, so thankfully I've never been in a situation where someone else's life has depended on me. Do you know what I mean? Because as I've gone up through, as I've promoted, it's been pretty peacetime, hasn't it? You know, in respect of where the British Army has gone. Maybe not special forces people, but yeah. So I hope that answers it.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

Yeah. Okay. Next question, which is we were talking were we talking we talking about hats before this? You mentioned hats in the in the military wedge sense. The next question from Coke, I kind of alluded to this one before we started recording. Okay, is it fair despite risking your life in war, paras who never saw combat would call you a crap hat? Are you glad? Are you glad this is paraculture, Hugh? So this second part is to me. Am I glad this is paraculture? And he also's asking me, would I call Jacob a crap hat now or back then? Right, so the so I lanced on my first, yeah, you're a fucking stinking screamer, crap hat.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

You know what? I think so many people like hate that about the Paras, but like you know, one thing I've really hated about the army is how it's changed over the last couple of years. Some people might think it's for the better or the worse. I think we're finding out the realities of sort of wokeness, you know, the pendulum's coming the other way. But I think one good thing about the Paras and the Marines, I'm gonna have to say to you, is that they've stuck to their bloody guns. Do you know what I mean? And it's that sort of elitism or what they probably call toxic masculinity nowadays. I don't, I just think it's a bloody, it's an armed forces. You know, we're meant to be going out to be ready of flipping rain, death, and destruction on the king's enemies, and that is something that you know the crap at is just that phrase of calling people a crap at that is the paras saying we are fucking better than you and we know it. And okay, some of them might be, some of them might not be, but at the end of the day, I think I think it's fucking alley to be honest. Like, do you know what I mean? I've been on courses with I remember being on DCs, so anti-tanks DCs down in Walminster, and there was a fucking stinking exercise they used to run called Dirty Tricks. By the end of that ex that one-week exercise where they destroy you. My section consisted of me, a para, a marine, and this mad jock guy. So it's like, do you know what I mean? The mad jock guy just gets a free pass because he's a mad jock, but then it's like, you know, the only other two that stuck it was a par and a marine because they they've got that you you know, we are better than everyone, we will not give up, we will not stop, and the crapper is just uh it's a byproduct of that mentality, isn't it? I th I think you yeah, I totally I totally agree, and it's I of course you do.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

I totally agree uh that uh on on everything you just said, uh but uh but uh also a critical component of of a sort of a byproduct of that um elitist mindset, which then brings about these slurs that we have for yeah. There's another one which is non-ferocious. Have you heard that one? No, no, non-ferocious. So we would say, oh, he's he's non-ferocious, because non-ferocious, it means it means it means not power reg. Yeah, non-ferocious, right? But there's also another byproduct that is it it is that uh invigorates the sense of competition between and uh you know if I was on the other side of that and I had some reg block, and I wasn't let's say I wasn't reg, some reg block calling me a sticking crap out, I'm like, I'm gonna prove that motherfucker wrong, yeah, yeah, you know, and it's like I'll be up my game, you know.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

How dare you? But it's just squatty banter, isn't it? You know, and when you've got a group of parents, I tend to mean it, yeah. Yeah, well, good, bloody good, but it is that it's you you know, when you're on courses with them, that they're the people you want in your section with you because they're just like I will not be shown up by any other regiment. So it's like bloody hell, it's good then, isn't it? You know, if you're on exile, you want someone like that that just isn't gonna fly.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

Yeah, the the the the flip side perception to that, uh not perception, uh yeah, experience that is from our perspective when you go on courses with other units, typical examples, you know, your drilling duties, your SCBC and your PSBC for you know for non for for non-commercial officers. Yeah, the pressure that is on RegBlocks. I imagine it must be on boot next as well. The pressure that is on us to beat everyone and we and get that distinction, get that top student. The pressure's unbelievable. Um honestly and and uh that is legit. Yeah, it's like my god, he's oh anyway, anyway. That's enough crap at questions. Sorry, mate. Sorry, Coke, Jesus, coke is good. It's good already. This question came from a civvy, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Is it a civvy, is it? Yeah, it's full-blown civvy. He's the worst of the lot.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

Stinking civvies. All right, question three. What's the greatest highlight of your military career and your civilian career? Is the wording of the question. Yeah, but you yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Bloody heck. Um I think probably my most fulfilling thing in my military career would be um I personally delivered 500, I think it's 556 orphans individually named gender-specific, age-specific, Christmas presents on Christmas morning back in 2000. I think it's 2018, 2017, 18. I was basically in Kenya, long story short, I put a video out, um, and then it got such great traction. I was working with a couple of orphanages while I was basically out there. Um after an excise, there was some people had to stay back and do um guard force or whatever for two two months over Christmas. And I thought, well, I'm gonna keep myself busy. And that's what I that's what I did, and yeah, 500. I think I'm sure it's 556 or something like that. In one morning, in one, yeah, well, it took us till about three o'clock in the afternoon. Oh my god. But yeah, multiple orphanages, all in, and we had this ISA container full of stuff, and I'd separated into gender and then age as you went down, and then I went round all the orphanages in the run-up, got all the names of all the kids, their gender, their age, and then individually, da da da da. And like I was doing videos throughout, and it was like the most feel-good thing.

SPEAKER_02 10:23

Was it a guards initiative? Was it?

SPEAKER_00 10:25

No, it was a me initiative. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, because I was staying out there and I just thought, what can I do? So I put this video and it got what do you mean you were staying out there? So it was a two-month exercise, and then like a team of people had to stay back and do the guard force afterwards, so you you know, the camp security bit. And um, I was the only one out of the six land sergeants in my platoon that didn't have anything on that Christmas. So I was like, well, I'll just take the hit and stay out. And then I was like, I'm not just gonna sit here doing nothing. And I'd heard that there was community engagement going on, so I got involved with that and then found out oh, they used to do Christmas boxes for us, so I just took it to the next level. And the posty out there, when these big bags started rocking up, actually tried to get me to stop.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

So I went on um This is the military posty, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

What a live. So I I went directly over his head. I was messaging like the CG.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

What was his problem? That loads of mail was coming in. Yeah, loads of mail was coming in, yeah. Giving him something to do. Yeah. His job. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

Like ridiculous. I literally I messaged the Army Sartre Major, the chief of general staff on like LinkedIn, like messaged him on Facebook, uh, made a massive, massive stink about it, and then he ended, I ended up basically getting given an ISA container, and he was basically made to deliver the stuff to my ISA container rather than me. So, but it's you know, it was it was purely just some bloody, you know, jobs worth that just didn't want to, yeah, he just didn't care. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do your job. Uh and then the the second one that says two, so I actually gate-crashed the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Parade. So it's um again trying to condense the story down because we have only got 20 minutes, but um, there was no place for me on the parade, it was while I was working at Knightsbridge, and um on the morning of I basically put like full blues on, full rig, and my boss was like, What are you doing, Lockie? There's no place for you on the parade. I was like, Yeah, yeah, no, I just want to dress up for the occasion. And then got in the when they all set off on the horses down to the beginning. I got in a horse ambulance, got a lift down, and says, Oh, yeah, did Tony not tell you I'm jumping in? They were like, What? And I was like, Come on, we've got to get down there. Got in there, got to the front of the parade. There was big, like the Civi parade aspect. They had this big dragon thing and it was freaking the horses out. So I had to run over, get them a stop. And then when the parade then set off, something was going on with one of the horses, and I just fell myself into the parade, like behind the front lot. So if you actually go back on the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Parade and look at the video as it's come as the parade is coming down the mall, you'll see a guy in black just marching by himself at the side of the road, and that is me.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

I need to try and find this. Right, give me one second.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Literally, just type in Queen's Platinum Jubilee Parade, and then it's as they're coming down the mall, you'll see me on the right hand side just marching down, and then at one point I was sort of marching along and I was thinking, I want to have a look at the Gold State coach. So I just fell in next to a copper at the side of the road, stood there for like a couple of minutes till the Gold State coach caught up with me. Yeah, and then as it as it was passing by, I then just fell myself back in, marched along with it. And um so it's the Colchuring Guards. No, Queen's Platinum Jubilee Parade. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh pageant.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

But but the point in the march, it's the culture and guards marching past, right? I need to find that bit.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

No, no, no, no, no, no. You just need a target. Three hours fifteen videos platinum jubilee pageant when they're marching down the mile. Look, because it's the the big the main bit is when the military got it.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

Pause speaking a minute because I will get this little bit cut out and we'll just skip to the video while I try and find the spot. Alright, so if I show you this way, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, so we got it on we got it we got it on screen now, let's get it here. Okay, here we go.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

That's me there. There.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

Doing your own thing.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

That's me right there. No. Well, it's it's that in it. It's y you know, if you look like you're meant to be there, you're probably meant to be there. But one of the horses in that first bit Charlie.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

Charlie's going to be.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

But um but it's so one of the horses in that first group, and you could sort of see it then, it was still dicking about a bit, and the garrison Sartre Major looked over at me on um Parliament Square and was like, you sort of looked at me and then looked at the horse as if to say you're gonna do something about that. So I just fell myself in and bloody joined in the parade. So good, so good.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Nice. All right. Um okay, question four. What is the best and worst ways you've seen the military, the army, deal with mental health? Good example, bad example, if you can.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Um yeah, that is that is a that is a tough question. I think good ways that I've seen um the armies deal with mental health is probably mess culture, um, in that you know geezers having each other's back. Um, because as I you know, when I said at the beginning, it's like, you know, I feel fortunate and I felt guilty that them sort of three phases of how I felt about missing out on our last fighting tour.

unknown 16:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

So sort of five, six years after our last Herrick would that this the mental scars started to really show up, like you, you know, multiple geezers suicide attempts, multiple geezers going off the rails, multiple geezers going bad on drinking drugs. Um, you know, it's a reality of it. And um and I think the good examples is each other looking after each other. The bad ways, I'd say, of seeing the military deal with mental health is the sort of knee-jerk reaction to it, I think. This sort of and I think it's it's not necessarily bad in that the army's dealt with it wrong. I think it's been they've they've tried to make a genuine impact on people, tried to help people for the right way, but then it it's you know, a lot of people taking advantage of that, and then it's it's kind of trying to not be taboo, but it has turned into a taboo subject because it has been so easy to be used. So it's almost like they've said, right, we need to help our guys rightly bloody. So what can we do? And it's like, right, let's get everything out there, get all the support, make it, but then it's it's then had a negative impact in that so many people you know, the younger soldiers using it as an excuse to get out of work. So then it's really did they do that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Really? But but then it's give me an example. Well, it's it's just the the the average one. I mean, when I was at Knightsbridge, for instance, last um, I got called back to help in 2025. Yes, and the first and I got brought back because they were struggling with the state ceremonial stuff, like the standards, you know, all that kind of thing. And I got brought back, and um, I said, right, I'm just gonna sit back for a week, I'm gonna observe, see what's going wrong since I last left here last year, and then I'm gonna take my action points. I got till the lunchtime of the first day before I got them all lined up, and I never shout at people because a shouting head, it's like if you're screaming, you've lost control, you lose credibility straight away. But I got them, and then you know, I'm I talk loud anyway, and I was like, right, fucking this is not good enough. There's horses stood there about in the hey, there's blah blah. I was like, you fuckers, this ain't fucking good enough. I've been brought back here. I'm having a drive into in London to deal with you fers, blah, blah, blah, blah. And briefed them up. I wasn't shouting, I was briefing them up, and it wasn't cunts directly, it was plural. You group of fers. And then the next morning I got brought into the office, and three of them had gone to the welfare and complained and said they felt unsafe coming to work because I was um creating a hostile work environment or something.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

Oh god.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

And my boss pulled me and he says, Look, right, Lockheed, I've got to tell you this, right? Because the welfare have come down. And I've said to them, no, he's just doing his job, they're trying to pull the wall, but you've got to be aware that this has been said. I says, right, look, Mac, it's either I'm I'm here and doing my job, or I'm just gonna be a dog's body, rock up and ride horses. What do you want? He said, Well, no, it's not like that, look. I said, Well, no, it is like that. I was like, I'm a bloody senior, and I'm having to get pulled in because guardsmen are saying that I'm bloody scaring them and all I'm doing is talking to them.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

Like, they're just playing the game, aren't they?

SPEAKER_00 20:21

Of course they are, and it is and it is exactly that. It's because the army, rightly so, because I have seen suicides in the military, and it is bloody serious that someone could get to a point where they want to take that ultimate bloody sacrifice on themselves, so it does happen, but equally it's people take the bloody piss, and because they take the piss, it leads to people then actually committing suicide because they feel like they can't speak out, and that's where I think it's been gotten so wrong with the military. But I wouldn't, you know, it's easy for me to say that, but I wouldn't want to be the one that has to try and make the decisions of how to fix that because I I know I'm not intelligent enough to work that out, yeah, and it is it's a it's a it's a legitimate thing, and I think you you know it's easy for the geese at the bottom and say, Oh, headshed don't care. Well, they do, but it's how do they fix something like that? You you know, that giant organization, you think of the army like a company. How do you fix that? I I don't bloody know, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:25

Yeah, that uh okay. Last question. There's a bunch of questions you haven't got time to go through. We'll do them on the main podcast at the end, right? Um so last question. This one is from David, uh, who's actually the editor.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

Hello David. Hello David.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

Um and so So there are lots of veteran owned clothing brands now. Uh what separates well not just clothing, but lots of veteran owned brands. What separates the ones that succeed from the ones that don't get?

SPEAKER_00 21:58

Content. Content. Content all day long. Content. Story. Um, yeah, big style. I I mean I talk to a lot of different brands. Like, if anybody bot takes their time out of their day to comment, I mean, like, if you go on my social media, I probably have a 99.999% completion rate of answering comments. So if anybody ever reached out reaches out to me and says, look, I'm struggling, can you help me? I will pick up the phone no matter what bloody time of day or night is, and I will give them the full Lockwood premium British smocks strategy. I do not care. Um, and it is content, it's stories. Because people, you know, in this emerging world of AI, which is coming like a bloody steam train, well, it's it's here and it's speeding up. People want realness, they want stories, they want this. You, you know, podcasts are flipping huge because people want to hear stories, and though publicity is what they want. It's real, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, you know, shout out to Jack Wiles RB Club. You know, he's another one. I I was watching him right from the beginning. He he has nailed it. Stories, people just want to know what you're up to. Yeah, you you know, I do my Wednesday waffle each week and I tell people, plug on the social media, Instagram, TikTok, eight o'clock every Wednesday. I go live and I tell people what I've been doing that week because it's real, so it's what separates those that win and lose content, putting themselves out there.

SPEAKER_02 23:27

Yeah, yeah. Uh I'm inclined to agree with you. Massive, massive factor, massive factor, possibly the biggest factor these days. If you want to.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

And it's it's not easy sometimes, you know. I I had a mortgage offer declined probably about a month and a half ago, and I got that email five minutes before going live, and I went live anyway. I was bloody, honestly, I was looking at my fiance, and it's like she looked like she was about to cry, and I'm there on the live telling people how my bloody week's gone, but it's real, man, you know, and people you know, and I get messages from people like hope you're okay, man. I get customers checking in with me all the time. How are you getting on, mate? What's going on? What are you up to? And it's like people I've never met. I have phone calls with them for like bloody each week. I must spend 12 hours or so just talking to people on the phone who I've never met.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

And it's people bloody like it. Yeah, well, good on you, mate. And uh it's um yeah, I'm looking forward to the full podcast, actually. Lots to talk about, lots to talk about. So if you're listening to this or watching this, a reminder of what I said at the start of the episode. This is now gonna roll into the next episode of HR, which is gonna be episode 280 something, uh, where it's a full podcast, full discussion with uh Lockie. Um well I I I am gonna guess we're gonna get into the weeds of not the weeds, we're gonna get into the beautiful flower beds of his military service Lockwood Smocks, like the origin of Lockwood Smokes, and I had a conversation with him off air before we started recording this icebreaker and uh and and and listening to how Lockwood Smots came about and other stuff that uh he has done previously alongside the military career is uh is also fascinating too. Lockwood smocks was not his first venture, was it Lockheed?

SPEAKER_00 25:16

No, it wasn't no, certainly it was not all right.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

Let's take a pause and roll into the next one.