One of English football's first ever Black players, Walter Tull went further in also being the British Army's first ever Black officer to command white troops. But 100 years after he died on the battlefields of World War One, his name means little to most people – especially those whose country he valiantly defended.
Despite having to overcome adversity all of his life, including being racially abused while a pioneering forward for Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Town, he enlisted with the Middlesex Regiment, part of a 'Footballers' Battalion' that drew professional players from a range of clubs.
Born in Folkestone, in Kent, he fought extensively in the war, at one stage being sent home suffering from ‘shell shock’ - what today would be diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder, before returning to the conflict, where he was made an officer, and served on the Italian Front from November 1917 to early March 1918. During his service he was cited for his "gallantry and coolness" by Major-General Sydney Lawford, after leading 26 men on a night raid against an enemy position.
With the British Army fighting a fierce rearguard defensive action, at the age of 29, Tull, of Barbadian heritage, was shot and killed on the Western Front in France.
His death received little media attention at the time, and it is only in recent years that his powerful story has started to be fully recognized.
His life is now commemorated at the Arras Memorial, in France, meticulously maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves with his name engraved along with 34,785 other soldiers with no known grave.
It’s 100 years, today, since his death and a campaign for Walter Tull to be awarded the Military Cross is ongoing, with renewed calls for Prime Minister Theresa May to intervene.
