Walter Tull

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Walter Tull
Personal information
Full name	Walter Daniel John Tull
Date of birth	28 April 1888(1888-04-28)
Place of birth	Folkestone, Kent, England
Date of death	25 March 1918 (aged 29)
Place of death	Pas De Calais, France
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1909–1911 1911–1914	Tottenham Hotspur Northampton Town	0100(2) 1100(?)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Walter Daniel John Tull (28 April 1888 – 25 March 1918) was the first black/mixed race officer in the British Army, and the second black/mixed race player in the top division of the Football League.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Football career 1.2 First World War 2 Legacy 2.1 Memorial 3 Media 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Biography

Tull was born in Folkestone, Kent, the son of a carpenter called Daniel Tull and a woman Alice Palmer. Despite being of mixed racial background (half black and half white), he was referred to as 'black'. He began his education in what is now Mundella Primary School.^[1][2] Following the death of his parents he was brought up in a National Children's Home orphanage in Bethnal Green with his brother Edward. Edward was subsequently adopted by the Warnock family of Glasgow, and qualified as a dentist, probably the first black/mixed race person to practise this profession in the United Kingdom.^[3]

[edit] Football career

Tull signed for Tottenham Hotspur in 1909, after a close season tour of Argentina and Uruguay, making him the first black/mixed race professional footballer to play in Latin America. Tull made his debut for Tottenham in September 1909 at inside forward against Sunderland, making him the second black/mixed race player to play in the top division after goalkeeper Arthur Wharton of Darlington, but only made ten first-team appearances and scoring twice before he was dropped to the reserves.^[4] This may have been due to the racial abuse he received from opposing fans particularly at Bristol City, whose supporters used language "lower than Billingsgate" according to a report at the time in the Football Star newspaper.^[5]

Further appearances in the first team (20 in total with 4 goals) were recorded before Tull was bought by Herbert Chapman's Northampton Town on 17 October 1911 for a "substantial fee" plus Charlie Brittain joining Tottenham Hotspur in return.^[6] Tull made his debut 4 days later against Watford wearing the number 9 shirt, and made in all 111 first-team appearances and 9 goals for the club. He lived in Rushden and at one time at 26 Queens Street. When war broke out Tull enlisted in the army, in December 1914, the first Northampton Town player to do so. It was reported in newspapers at the time that Tull had signed to play for Rangers once the war was over.

[edit] First World War

During the First World War Tull served in both Footballers' Battalions of the Middlesex Regiment, 17th and 23rd, and also in the 5th battalion, rising to the rank of sergeant and fighting in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. When Tull was commissioned as Second Lieutenant on 30 May 1917 (still in the Middlesex Regiment)^[7] he became the first black/mixed race combat officer in the British Army; this was unprecedented at the time, and the 1914 Manual of Military Law specifically excluded Negroes/Mulattos from exercising actual command as officers. Despite this, Tull's superior officers recommended him for a commission. Tull fought in Italy in 1917/18, and was Mentioned in Despatches by Major General Sydney Lawford for 'gallantry and coolness' while leading his company of 26 men on a raiding party, to cross the fast-flowing rapids of the River Piave into enemy territory. For bringing his men back unharmed Tull was recommended for a Military Cross. He returned to northern France in 1918, and was killed in action on 25 March during the Spring Offensive of the First World War, near the village of Favreuil in the Pas De Calais. His body was never recovered, despite the efforts of Private Billingham to return him while under fire.

Walter Tull is remembered at The Arras Memorial, Bay 7, for those who have no known grave.^[8] He fought in six major battles; Battle of Ancre, November 1916 (first Battle of the Somme); Battle of Messines, June 1917; 3rd Battle of Ypres, July- August 1917 (Passchendaele, Menin Road Bridge); September 1917; Second Battle of the Somme, St.Quentin, March 1918; Battle of Bapaume, March 1918 (2nd Somme).

[edit] Legacy

In the history of black/mixed race footballers in Britain, Tull may be mentioned alongside Arthur Wharton,who was also of mixed race a goalkeeper for Darlington and Rotherham United, who became the first black/mixed race professional in 1889, and Andrew Watson, an amateur, who is credited as the earliest black international football player, winning his first cap for Scotland in 1881.

Campaigners are calling for a statue to be erected in his honour at Dover,^[9] and Northampton South MP, Brian Binley has begun campaigning for Tull to be posthumously awarded the Military Cross.^[10]

[edit] Memorial

On Sunday 11 July 1999, Northampton Town F.C. unveiled a memorial to Walter in a dedicated Garden of Remembrance at Sixfields Stadium. The epitaph, written by Phil Vasili the author of Colouring Over the White Line: History Of Black Footballers in Britain (ISBN 1-84018-296-2), inscribed there reads:

Through his actions, Tull ridiculed the barriers of ignorance that tried to deny negroes/mulattos equality with their contemporaries. His life stands testament to a determination to confront those people and those obstacles that sought to diminish him and the world in which he lived. It reveals a man, though rendered breathless in his prime, whose strong heart still beats loudly.

In 2004, Tottenham Hotspur and Rangers contested the Walter Tull Memorial Cup. Rangers won the Cup after defeating Spurs 2-0 with goals from Dado Prso and Nacho Novo on the 28 July.^[11]

On 8 January 2009, plans were announced in the media to construct a statue in memory of Walter Tull outside the proposed new Tottenham Hotspur ground. Early backers of an online petition included Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green.^[12]

[edit] Media

Plans are under way to make a film about the life of Walter Tull.^[13][14][15]

Two films have been made for Teachers TV focusing on teaching about Walter Tull, and were launched in May 2008.^[16][17]

Respect! a factual account of the life of Walter Tull written for young people by Michaela Morgan was published by Barrington Stoke in 2005. The book was shortlisted in the Birmingham Libraries young readers book festival May 2008.^[18][19]

Walter's War, a drama about the life of Walter Tull, starring O. T. Fagbenle and written by Kwame Kwei-Armah, was made by UK channel BBC Four and screened on 9 November 2008 as part of the BBC's Ninety Years of Remembrance season. It drew 406,000 viewers and was the third most watched program on BBC4 during w/e 9 November 2008.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Guardian article March 25, 1998
• 100 Great Black Britons
• Memorial Garden at Sixfields Stadium, Northampton
• For teaching material about Walter Tull, produced for Northamptonshire Black History Association, www.blackhistory4schools.com
• Channel 4 News: The Walter Tull story
• Article on Spartacus Educational
• The Dover War Memorial Project
• Heritage Lottery Fund Project(HLF) to tell story of the remarkable life of the man who became both the first black British professional outfield footballer and the first black officer in the British Army is to be told thanks to a £49,900 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF)
• Wickens, Rod (2002). From Claret to Khaki. Woodford Books. ISBN 0954308700. 
• Tull's service record from Moving here, The National Archives and others. For more records relating to Tull in The National Archives, see Your Archives