Walter TULL
Forward 1908-1910
Full name : – Walter Daniel John Tull
Born on 28th April 1888 in Folkestone, Kent, England.
Height : 1.75m (5′ 8″)
Weight : 69.85kg (11st 0lbs)
Walter Tull was only the second black footballer to play professionally in England and the first who was an outfield player to play in the Football League.
His father Daniel was a carpenter and had come to England from Barbados, where he settled in Folkestone and married a local woman. The grandson of a slave, Walter was orphaned at the age of nine, being put into a Methodist orphanage in Bethnal Green, East London with his brother Edward. While Edward was adopted soon after the move, Walter remained in the children’s home and was required to attend school in the morning and in the afternoon, clean shoes and wash floors.
Walter began his career at nearby Clapton Football Club and was signed after good displays in the successful East London side by Tottenham in 1908. Tull cost Spurs £10, but was on top pay for the time of £4 a week. At the time he was only the second black player to grace the First Division and the first outfield player. With few black people in the country, Walter faced abuse from opposition crowds just because of his colour and this was especially true in areas outside of London. In an away game against Bristol City, he received racist abuse from the home crowd and was disturbed by the treatment he received.
Scoring in his first Spurs match for the A Team in a 5-2 win over Shaftesbury on 11th March 1909, Walter then scored twice against Brighton for our Reserves. Making his first appearance in the first team in a friendly against Clapton Orient, he found the net twice in a 3-2 win. The forward had gone on tour to South America with Tottenham, to play against Everton, scoring in a 2-2 draw in Palermo. Back in England, Tull signed professional terms and was on the score-sheet in his fourth appearance in league matches, the only goal in a 1-5 defeat by Bradford City.
However, Tull was soon left out of the Tottenham team and did not regain his place in the first XI. He played in all the positions along the forward line for the Reserves and he scored a hat-trick against Northampton Town Reserves in February 1911. In his last game for Tottenham, Walter scored in a 1-1 draw at home to Chelsea in the Middlesex Challenge Cup in October 1911, His skill was not in question, but his lack of pace cast him his place in the team, but he stayed at Spurs for two years, making ten appearances at centre forward, before transferring to Northampton Town in 1911 in a deal that brought Richard Brittain to Spurs. Tull had been lined up to move to Heanor Town, but former Spurs player Herbert Chapman stepped in to keep Tull in the Football League with the Cobblers and he enjoyed a three-season career with them, racking up over 100 appearances and scoring nine goals.
At the onset of the First World War, Tull volunteered for duty in the 17th (1st Football) Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment on 21st December 1914. He was promoted quickly to the rank of sergeant, being posted to the Front and in 1916, he suffered severe shell shock. However, his bravery in his duty at the Somme brought commendation from his senior officers and despite the rules of the military services at the time “forbidding any negro or person of colour” from being given a commissioned rank which he achieved in 1917. Having got through the first offensive on the Somme and led his men at Piave in Italy on the Italian Alpine Front, Walter was commended for his “gallantry and coolness” under fire, earning a commendation for a Military Cross and was revered by the men under his command.
He was killed, with a shot to the head, after leading an attack on enemy trenches at Favreuil on the Western Front in on 25th March 1918 at the age of 29. Like so many of those who died in the Great War, his body was never recovered, but his name adorns the war memorial for those lost in battle at Arras in France. At the time of his death, Walter had achieved the rank of Second Lieutenant.
However, his colour still played a part in his story, as it prevented him being awarded a posthumous Military Cross.
In memory of his achievements on and off the field, a statue of Walter Tull stands outside the Sixfields stadium in Northampton and he was commemorated on a UK stamp in 2018 in a series marking 100 years since the end of First World War (above).
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Career Record
| Club | Signed | Fee | Debut | Apps | Goals |
| Clapton | 1908 | – | ??? | – | – |
| TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR | April 1909 | £10 | 1st September 1909 v Sunderland (Division -) (away) lost 1-3 | 10 | 2 |
| Northampton Town | October 1911 | – | ??? | 110 | 9 |
| Glasgow Rangers | 1914 | – | – | 0 | 0 |
Tottenham Hotspur career
10 League appearances; 2 goals
8 Other appearances; 6 goals
Honours
Amateur Cup winners medal 1909 (Clapton)
London Senior Cup winners medal 1909 (Clapton)
| What they said about Walter Tull |
| … on racist abuse he received from Bristol City fans … October 1909 (newspaper report)
“They made a cowardly attack upon him in language lower than Billingsgate (the London fish market). Let me tell those Bristol hooligans that Tull is so clean in mind and method as to be a model for all white men.” |
| … on his achievements and how there should be a statue to Tull in London … by Michael Morpurgo (who based a novel on Tull’s life) … 2013 (Daily Mail)
“So the children of today, black and white, can see how long and how honourably black people have been serving in the Armed Forces. I simply felt more people should know about this remarkable man.” |
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Other articles on Walter Tull
By Chris Baker – “Walter Daniel Tull and recommendation for the Military Cross” (The Long, Long Trail website)
By Peter Daniel – “Crossing the White Line : The Walter Tull Story” (City of Westminster Archives)
By Marilyn Stephenson-Knight – “First Black Army Officer, Footballer and Great War Hero” (Dover War Memorial Project)
Books on Walter Tull
By Michaela Morgan – “Walter Tull’s Scrapbook” (2012) Published by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books
By Dan Lindon/Roger Wade Walker – “Walter Tull: Footballer, Soldier, Hero” (2011) Published by Collins Big Cat
By Michael Morpurgo – “A Medal For Leroy” (novel based on Walter Tull’s life) (2013) Published by Harper Collins Children’s Books
By Stephen Wynn – “Against All Odds: Walter Tull the Black Lieutenant” (2018) Published by Pen and Sword Military
By Michaela Morgan – “Respect: The Walter Tull Story” (2020) Published by Barrington Stoke
By Phil Vasili – “Walter Tull, (1888-1918), Officer, Footballer: All the Guns in France Couldn’t Wake Me” (2009) Published by Raw Press.