Walter Tull
Walter Tull was born on 28 April 1888 in Folkestone where he attended school until he was orphaned. His father was from Barbados and his mother from Kent. His paternal grandfather was a slave in Barbados. His mother died of cancer when he was 7, and his father of heart disease when he was 9. Walter and his brother were then brought up in an orphanage in Bethnal Green, East London.
From 1908 he started to play football and was signed by Clapham FC, then the following year by Tottenham Hotspur F.C. He was the second person of African-Caribbean mixed heritage to play in the top division of the Football League. He later moved to Northampton Town F.C. in 1911 where he played half-back.
When the First World War broke out in August 1914, Tull became the first Northampton Town player to enlist in the British Army which he did in December. Tull served in the two Football Battalions of the Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex) Regiment – the 17th and 23rd – and also in the 5th Battalion.
In the army, Tull's leadership qualities were quickly recognised and he was promoted to sergeant. He fought in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Despite military regulations forbidding 'any negro or person of colour' being commissioned as an officer, Walter was promoted to lieutenant on 30 May 1917 after attending the officer training school at Gailes, Scotland. He is generally considered to be the first African-Caribbean mixed heritage man to be commissioned as an infantry officer in the British Army.
With the 23rd Battalion, Tull fought on the Italian Front from 30 November 1917 to early March 1918. He was praised for his "gallantry and coolness" by his commanding officer, having led 26 men on a night-raiding party, crossing the fast-flowing rapids of the Piave River into enemy territory and returning them unharmed.
The commanding officer of the 23rd Battalion, Major Poole and his colleague 2Lt Pickard both said that Tull had been put forward for a Military Cross, but in fact the Ministry of Defence claim to have no record of it. (Many records were lost in a 1940 fire).
Tull was killed in action near the village of Favreuil in the Pas-de-Calais on 25 March 1918 during the First Battle of Bapaume, the early stages of the German Army's Spring Offensive. His body was never recovered, despite the efforts of, among others, Private Tom Billingham, a former goalkeeper for Leicester Fosse, to return him to the British position while under fire from German machine-guns.
His name was added to his parents' gravestone in Cheriton Road Cemetery here in Folkestone, and appears on the Folkestone War Memorial, at the top of the Road of Remembrance in Folkestone.
His brother was adopted by the Warnock family of Glasgow, becoming Edward Tull-Warnock; he qualified as a dentist, the first mixed-heritage person to practise this profession in the United Kingdom.
Walter Tull
Walter Tull was born on 28 April 1888 in Folkestone where he attended school until he was orphaned. His father was from Barbados and his mother from Kent. His paternal grandfather was a slave in Barbados. His mother died of cancer when he was 7, and his father of heart disease when he was 9. Walter and his brother were then brought up in an orphanage in Bethnal Green, East London.
From 1908 he started to play football and was signed by Clapham FC, then the following year by Tottenham Hotspur F.C. He was the second person of African-Caribbean mixed heritage to play in the top division of the Football League. He later moved to Northampton Town F.C. in 1911 where he played half-back.
When the First World War broke out in August 1914, Tull became the first Northampton Town player to enlist in the British Army which he did in December. Tull served in the two Football Battalions of the Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex) Regiment – the 17th and 23rd – and also in the 5th Battalion.
In the army, Tull's leadership qualities were quickly recognised and he was promoted to sergeant. He fought in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Despite military regulations forbidding 'any negro or person of colour' being commissioned as an officer, Walter was promoted to lieutenant on 30 May 1917 after attending the officer training school at Gailes, Scotland. He is generally considered to be the first African-Caribbean mixed heritage man to be commissioned as an infantry officer in the British Army.
With the 23rd Battalion, Tull fought on the Italian Front from 30 November 1917 to early March 1918. He was praised for his "gallantry and coolness" by his commanding officer, having led 26 men on a night-raiding party, crossing the fast-flowing rapids of the Piave River into enemy territory and returning them unharmed.
The commanding officer of the 23rd Battalion, Major Poole and his colleague 2Lt Pickard both said that Tull had been put forward for a Military Cross, but in fact the Ministry of Defence claim to have no record of it. (Many records were lost in a 1940 fire).
Tull was killed in action near the village of Favreuil in the Pas-de-Calais on 25 March 1918 during the First Battle of Bapaume, the early stages of the German Army's Spring Offensive. His body was never recovered, despite the efforts of, among others, Private Tom Billingham, a former goalkeeper for Leicester Fosse, to return him to the British position while under fire from German machine-guns.
His name was added to his parents' gravestone in Cheriton Road Cemetery here in Folkestone, and appears on the Folkestone War Memorial, at the top of the Road of Remembrance in Folkestone.
His brother was adopted by the Warnock family of Glasgow, becoming Edward Tull-Warnock; he qualified as a dentist, the first mixed-heritage person to practise this profession in the United Kingdom.