33 Facts About Walter Tull

Walter Daniel John Tull was an English professional footballer and British Army officer of Afro-Caribbean descent.

Walter Tull played as an inside forward and half back for Clapton, Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Town and was the third person of mixed heritage to play in the top division of the Football League after Arthur Wharton and Willie Clarke.

Walter Tull was the first player of African descent to be signed for Rangers in 1917 while stationed in Scotland.

Walter Tull was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 30 May 1917 and killed in action on 25 March 1918.

Walter Tull was born in Folkestone, Kent, the son of Barbadian carpenter Daniel Walter Tull and Kent-born Alice Elizabeth Palmer.

Walter Tull began his education at North Board School, now Mundella Primary School, Folkestone.

In 1895, when Walter Tull was seven, his mother died of cancer.

Walter Tull gave birth to a daughter Miriam, on 11 September 1897.

Walter Tull had signed for Clapton in October 1908, reportedly never playing in a losing side.

At the age of 21, Walter Tull signed for Football League First Division team, Tottenham Hotspur, in the summer of 1909, after a close-season tour of Argentina and Uruguay, making him the first mixed-heritage professional footballer to play in Latin America.

Walter Tull made his debut for Tottenham in September 1909 at inside forward against Sunderland and his home Football League debut against FA Cup-holders, Manchester United, in front of over 30,000.

Walter Tull made only 10 first-team appearances, scoring twice, before he was dropped to the reserves.

Walter Tull made his debut four days later against Watford, and made 111 first-team appearances, scoring nine goals for the club.

The day before the Titanic sank on April 15,1912, Walter Tull scored four goals in a match against Bristol Rovers.

In 1940, it was reported in an article in the Glasgow Evening Times about Walter Tull being the first "coloured" infantry officer in the British Army, that he had signed to play for Rangers after the war.

Rangers have confirmed that Walter Tull signed for them in February 1917, while an officer cadet in Scotland at Gailes, Ayrshire.

Walter Tull served in the two Football Battalions of the Duke of Cambridge's Own Regiment, the 17th and 23rd, and in the 5th Battalion.

Walter Tull rose to the rank of lance sergeant and fought in the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

When Walter Tull was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 30 May 1917, he became one of the first mixed-heritage infantry officers in a regular British Army regiment, when the 1914 Manual of Military Law excluded soldiers that were not "natural born or naturalised British subjects of pure European descent" from becoming commissioned officers in the Special Reserve.

Walter Tull was praised for his "gallantry and coolness" by Major-General Sydney Lawford, General Officer Commanding 41st Division, 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.

Walter Tull's 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.

Walter Tull is commemorated on Bay 7 of the Arras Memorial, which commemorates 34,785 soldiers who have no known grave, who died in the Arras sector.

Walter Tull's name was added to his parents' gravestone in Cheriton Road Cemetery, Folkestone.

Walter Tull's name is listed in the Roll of Honour for the City of Glasgow, his address given as 419 St Vincent Street, the location of the dental surgery belonging to his brother Edward.

Walter Tull's name appeared on the war memorial at North Board School, Folkestone, unveiled on 29 April 1921.

Walter Tull is named on the Folkestone War Memorial, at the top of the Road of Remembrance in Folkestone, and in Dover his name is on the town war memorial outside Maison Dieu House, and on the parish memorial at River.

Walter Tull ridiculed the barriers of ignorance that tried to deny people of colour equality with their contemporaries.

Walter Tull's 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.

On 21 October 2014, a blue plaque was unveiled at 77 Northumberland Park, London N17, on the site of the house where Walter Tull lived before the war, close to the White Hart Lane ground.

On 4 July 2017, five statues including one of Walter Tull were unveiled in the courtyard of Northampton Guildhall.

On 21 October 2021, Walter Tull was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame of the National Football Museum.

Two films, focusing on teaching about Walter Tull, were made for Teachers TV and launched in May 2008.

In 2014, Gazebo Theatre, based in Bilston Town Hall, toured a play about the life of Walter Tull, entitled The Hallowed Turf.