BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRO-BRITISH " SECOND LIEUTENANT WALTER TULL " WAS THE FIRST BLACK BRITISH ARMY INFANTRY OFFICER : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK HEROES "

                                          BLACK                             SOCIAL                         HISTORY                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

(Photo of Water Tull courtesy of Doug Banks)

Second Lieutenant Walter Tull was the first black British Army Infantry Officer. The son of a joiner, Walter was born in Folkestone on 28th April 1888. His father, the son of a slave, had arrived from Barbados in 1876. In 1895, when Walter was seven, his mother died and his father remarried only to die two years later. The stepmother was unable to cope with all six children and so Walter and his brother Edward were sent to a Methodist -run orphanage in Bethnal Green.

Walter was a keen footballer and played for a team in Clapton. In 1908, his talents were discovered by a scout from Tottenham Hotspur and the club decided to sign the promising young footballer. He played for Tottenham until 1910, when he was transferred for a large fee to Northampton Town. Walter became the first black outfield player to play professional football in Britain.

When World War I broke out, Walter abandoned his football career to join the Seventeenth (First Football) Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment and, during his military training, he was promoted three times. In November 1914, as Lance Sergeant, he was sent to Les Ciseaux but, in May 1915, he was sent home with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Returning to France in September 1916, Walter fought in the Battle of the Somme between October and November. His courage and abilities encouraged his superior officers to recommend him as an Officer and, on 26th December, 1916, Walter went back to England to train as an Officer.

There were military laws forbidding ‘any negro or person of colour’ being commissioned as an Officer. Despite this, Walter was promoted to Lieutenant in 1917 and became the first ever black Officer in the British Army, and the first black Officer to lead white men into battle.

Walter was sent to the Italian Front where he twice led his Company across the River Piave on a raid and both times brought all of his troops back safely. He was mentioned in Despatches for his ‘gallantry and coolness’ under fire by his commanding officer and he was recommended for the Military Cross, but never received it.

After their time in Italy, Walter’s Battalion was transferred to the Somme and, on 25th March 1918, he was killed by machine gun fire while trying to help his men withdraw.

Walter was such a popular man that several of his men risked their own lives in an attempt to retrieve his body under heavy fire, but they were unsuccessful due to the enemy soldiers’ advance.  His body was never found and he is one of the many thousands from World War I who has no known grave.

IS THIS WALTER TULL SWORD FROM THE FIRST WORLD WAR, THAT WAS BROUGHT BACK BY A BRITISH SOLDIER AND WAS FOUND IN AN HOUSE IN CORNWALL ?

I NEED TO RESEARCH THIS ON A FORGOTTEN BLACK BRITISH SOLDIER WHO DIED FOR HIS COUNTRY AND KING A HUNDRED YEARS AGO AND THE ONLY KNOWN BLACK BRITISH COMMISSIONED OFFICER IN THE BRITISH ARMY INFANTRY BATTALION :