Britain
Walter Tull
1888–1918 Second lieutenant, 23rd Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, 1917–1918
Born in Folkestone to a Barbadian carpenter, Walter Tull was raised from the age of nine in a Methodist orphanage in London after both his parents died. He played professional football for Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Town, and in 1914 enlisted in the Middlesex Regiment, joining its 17th (Footballers') Battalion. Commissioned a second lieutenant on 30 May 1917, he became one of the first infantry officers of Afro-Caribbean descent in the British Army. In Italy with the 23rd Battalion, he led a covering party of 26 men across the River Piave during a raid in January 1918. He was killed near Favreuil on 25 March 1918, and his body was never recovered. Fellow officers wrote that he had been recommended for the Military Cross, but no record of it survives.
In the chronicle
Sources
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Tull
- www.longlongtrail.co.uk/walter-daniel-tull-and-recommendation-for-the-military-cross
- www.caribbean-beat.com/issue-150/over-the-line
- www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/first-world-war-service-and-sacrifice/walter-tull-footballer-soldier-trailblazer
- grecianarchive.exeter.ac.uk/exhibits/show/ecfc_tull100/first-infantry-officer