A portrait of Walter Tull in his military uniform is superimposed atop a poppy field.

Black History Month: Walter Tull

He was one of the first people of mixed heritage to play in the Football League’s top division, and the British Army’s first Black officer. Walter Tull exemplified heroism in both.

Walter’s early life

A detailed, modern-style headshot of Walter Tull that shows a dimpled smile and light freckles on his face.
Artist-enhanced photograph of Walter Tull by Twitter user @KhalSir. Credit: Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa / Used by Permission

Walter Tull was born in 1888, in Folkestone, Kent, where his mother’s family were from. His father, Daniel Tull, was a carpenter from Barbados, where Walter’s grandfather had been a slave.

Walter’s early childhood was spent in Folkestone, where he started school. But when Walter was just 7 years old, his mother died. And, a couple of years later, when Walter was 9, his father died, too.

Daniel Tull had re-married, but Walter’s step-mother, Clara, found it difficult bringing up 5 young children on her own. Ministers from Clara’s church advised her to send the two oldest boys, Walter and his elder brother Edward, to an orphanage in East London.

Edward was adopted by a family from Glasgow, where he went on to study and qualify as the first mixed-race dentist in the United Kingdom.

A Black football pioneer

Walter -- in white shirt and black shorts with striped socks -- stands with hands on hips. A signature in the corner is dated 1911.
Walter Tull in his Tottenham Holtspur uniform. Credit: Walter Tull Family Archive / Used by Permission

It was in East London that Walter signed his first football contract, joining the amateur club Clapton in 1908. He helped Clapton win three cups in his first year, and received many glowing reports. Just one year later, aged 21, Walter made the leap from amateur to professional football when he signed for Tottenham Hotspur in the First Division (what we now call the Premier League).

However, Walter soon became the target of racial abuse from some opposition supporters.

One report in the Football Star, headlined “Football and the Colour Prejudice”, is thought to be the first time racial abuse was mentioned in a football report. The story states that Walter remained professional and composed throughout the game while “a section of the crowd made a cowardly attack on him.”

The story describes Walter as “Holtspur’s most brainy forward” and states, “Let me tell those Bristol hooligans that Tull is so clean in mind and method as to be a model for all white men who play football … Tull was the best forward on the field.”

Even so, soon after this match Walter was dropped to the reserves, and found it difficult to get back into the first-team on a regular basis.

In 1911 Walter was signed up by the great manager Herbert Chapman to play for Northampton Town, where he went on to make over a hundred appearances.

Make a finger football game featuring Walter Tull as part of our virtual History of Toys workshop

 

The first Black officer in the British Army

Walter Tull stands with his hands in the pockets of his Army uniform.
Walter Tull in the British Army, 1914. Credit: Public Domain

When the First World War broke out in August 1914, Walter joined the British Army.

Seeing action at the First Battle of the Somme, and on the Italian Front, he was praised for his “gallantry and coolness”. He rose through the ranks to become the first black officer in the British Army (even though Army rules at the time only allowed for white officers). He showed great bravery leading his men into battle behind enemy lines.

On 25th March 1918 Walter was killed in action in Northern France during the Second Battle of the Somme. Despite brave efforts from his men, his body was never recovered. He was just 29 years old.

His commanding officers wrote to his family to say that they had recommended him for a Military Cross.

Many years later it was revealed that, after the war, Walter had agreed to join Glasgow Rangers, one of the biggest clubs in Scotland.

“Walter Tull is a true British hero who overcame prejudices of the time to exceed in his sporting career and his army life. He, for me, sums up everything that makes me so proud to be British.”

— Nick Marr, WalterTull.org

 

A lasting legacy

Members of the Clapton Football Club huddle in front of a sign celebrating the achievements of Walter Tull in 2019, 100 years after Tull's death.
Clapton Community Football Club remembered Tull on the centennary of his death in 2018. Credit: Craig Hatfield
The memorial consists of a large patchwork of grey stones with script on the surface. Poppy wreaths lie at the base.
The memorial to Walter Tull outside Sixfields Stadium, Northampton. Credit: Tim Newns, GFDL <http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html>, via Wikimedia Commons

Today Walter Tull is honoured and remembered in a number of ways, including Blue Plaques at his former homes in London and Rushden. A statue of him stands outside Northampton Guildhall, and in October 2020 the Royal Mail painted a postbox black in his honour in Glasgow for Black History Month.

Near Northampton Town Football Club’s Sixfields Stadium, both a road and a pub bear Walter’s name. A memorial outside the grounds states:

“Through his actions, W. D. J. Tull ridiculed the barriers of ignorance that tried to deny people of colour 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.”

— Phil Vasili, biographer

Connections to the curriculum and further learning

National Curriculum themes:

  • The lives of significant individuals
  • Events beyond living memory

If you want to learn more about pioneering black footballers, try researching:

  • Robert Walker (of Third Lanark)
  • Andrew Watson (thought to be Scotland’s first black international footballer)
  • Arthur Wharton (Darlington, amongst others, thought to be the Britain’s first black professional footballer)
  • John Walker (Hearts & Lincoln)
  • Willie Clarke (Aston Villa & Bradford City)
  • Edward & John Cother (Watford)
  • Benjamin Odeje (England’s first black schoolboy international)
  • Viv Anderson (Nottingham Forest & Arsenal. England’s first full-international black footballer)

Key points in the life of Walter Tull

  • Walter Daniel John Tull was born in Folkestone, England, on 28th April 1888.
  • He was one of the first black footballers to play professionally in Great Britain.
  • He started his career with Clapton, East London (1908), before moving to Tottenham Hotspur (1909) and then to Northampton Town (1911).
  • Walter Tull joined the British Army in the First World War (1914).
  • Walter Tull was sadly killed in action on 25th March 1918.

Sources (and resouces):

Video Links:

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By Craig Hatfield, Off the Page teacher