Walter Tull: Football, the Armistice and the Game’s Great War Dead (1918)
Armistice Day falls on 11 November, the date the guns stopped on the Western Front in 1918, and football keeps its own roll of the fallen. Walter Tull is the name most often read out: a Tottenham and Northampton Town forward, Britain’s first Black outfield professional, and a second lieutenant killed leading his men in No Man’s Land on 25 March 1918, his body never recovered. He is one name among many, remembered alongside the sixteen Heart of Midlothian men who marched off in 1914.
His story sits alongside that of the Edinburgh side whose 1914-15 title challenge dissolved into a battalion.
Key Facts
- Walter Tull was the first Black outfield player in the Football League, debuting in a 3-1 defeat at Sunderland on 1 September 1909.
- He moved to Northampton Town in October 1911, signed by Herbert Chapman, and played 110 games for the Southern League club, scoring nine.
- Tull enlisted in the 17th (Football) Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment on 21 December 1914, alongside the former England amateur Vivian Woodward.
- Commissioned second lieutenant on 30 May 1917, he was killed by machine-gun fire on 25 March 1918 while rallying his men; his name is on the Arras Memorial to the Missing.
- Heart of Midlothian led the Scottish First Division for 35 of 37 weeks in 1914-15 before 16 players enlisted, mostly in McCrae’s Battalion, the 16th Royal Scots.
- Seven of those Hearts players died: Speedie, Gracie, Currie, Ellis, Wattie, Boyd and Allan.
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The forward who became an officer
Walter Tull’s football career
Tull was born in Folkestone on 28 April 1888, his mother English and his father from Barbados, and grew up in an East London orphanage after losing both parents. He came to Tottenham from the amateur side Clapton in 1909. When he stepped out for the club’s first top-flight match, a 3-1 defeat at Sunderland on 1 September 1909, he became Britain’s first Black outfield professional, the first Black outfield player in the Football League. The word outfield matters: the goalkeeper Arthur Wharton had turned professional back in 1889, so Tull was not the first Black professional footballer in Britain overall.
His Tottenham spell was short. After two goals in ten senior appearances, and a spell dropped to the reserves linked to racial abuse from opposition supporters at a fixture against Bristol City, Tull moved to Northampton Town in October 1911. Herbert Chapman, later of Arsenal, wanted him. At the County Ground he found his form, moving from half-back to inside-forward and playing 110 games. Rangers were interested in signing him when the war ended his football for good.
The officer claim, and why it is contested
Tull enlisted in the 17th (Football) Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment on 21 December 1914, the first Northampton player to do so, serving with the former Tottenham forward Vivian Woodward. He rose to sergeant, fought on the Somme in 1916, and after officer training was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 30 May 1917, against the regulations of the day. Tottenham call him “the first British-born Black combat officer in the British Army”.
That claim is contested, and worth stating carefully. Earlier officers of Black and mixed heritage had already been commissioned: Jamaican-born Euan Lucie-Smith joined the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and was commissioned before his death in April 1915, George Bemand was commissioned as an artillery officer after training in the autumn of 1914, and David Clemetson was made an officer in the Pembroke Yeomanry in early 1915. Each of those three was born in Jamaica, which is the ground on which the narrower British-born wording rests. The National Football Museum itself hedges, titling its profile with a question, “The British Army’s first Black heritage officer?”, and calling Tull among the earliest officers of Black heritage. The defensible statement is the specific one: a British-born Black officer commissioned to command white troops when army rules forbade it.
He was sent to Italy in November 1917 with the 23rd (2nd Footballers’) Battalion, where he was Mentioned in Despatches for leading a New Year’s Day trench raid in 1918 and put forward for the Military Cross, which never came. Returned to France for the German Spring Offensive, Tull was hit by machine-gun fire on 25 March 1918 as he tried to rally his men. His body was never found. A fellow footballer, the former Leicester Fosse goalkeeper Tom Billingham, tried to bring him back under fire and could not. His name is among nearly 35,000 on the Arras Memorial to the Missing.
Hearts, McCrae’s Battalion and a title that slipped away
Tull’s is the individual story, Heart of Midlothian’s the collective one. Hearts opened the 1914-15 Scottish season with eight successive league wins, the first a 2-0 home win over reigning champions Celtic in front of 18,500. By November they were comfortably clear at the top. It was then that Sir George McCrae obtained permission to raise a battalion in Edinburgh, and the recruitment took hold at Tynecastle: thirteen Hearts players signed up for what became the 16th Royal Scots, taking the club’s total in service to sixteen.
The enlistment was announced at a Tynecastle press conference on 25 November 1914, and McCrae’s unit was the earliest of the Footballers’ battalions, the example that inspired the 17th Middlesex, Tull’s own unit, the following year. Training drained the side. Hearts drew and lost through the spring, Celtic overhauled them, and the Edinburgh side had been top for 35 of the league’s 37 weeks yet ended four points adrift, denied a title they would have worn well. Tom Gracie, the league’s top scorer that season with a club-record 30 goals, was already carrying the leukaemia that would kill him in October 1915.
Seven of the Hearts men who enlisted did not come home. Four of them, Boyd, Currie, Ellis and Wattie, fell on the Somme and are named at Thiepval. John Allan, wounded at Roeux on 22 April 1917 and never found, appears on the same Arras Memorial as Tull. The record below is theirs.
| Player | How they were lost | Commemorated |
|---|---|---|
| Duncan Currie | Died on the Somme, 1916 | Thiepval Memorial |
| Ernest Ellis | Died on the Somme, 1916 | Thiepval Memorial |
| Harry Wattie | Died on the Somme, 1916 | Thiepval Memorial |
| James Boyd | Died on the Somme, 1916 | Thiepval Memorial |
| James Speedie | Killed on active service, 1915 | McCrae’s Battalion Roll of Honour |
| Tom Gracie | Died of leukaemia at Stobhill Hospital, October 1915 | McCrae’s Battalion Roll of Honour |
| John Allan | Wounded and lost at Roeux, 22 April 1917 | Arras Memorial |
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Walter Tull and Football’s Great War Dead
Who was Walter Tull and why is he remembered on Armistice Day?
Walter Tull was a footballer and soldier killed in the First World War on 25 March 1918. He was the first Black outfielder to play in the Football League, and he later became an infantry officer, dying while leading his men in France. His name is read out at Armistice commemorations because it joins his football career to the war that ended the careers of so many players. He is buried nowhere; his body was never recovered, and he is commemorated on the Arras Memorial to the Missing.
Was Walter Tull the first Black professional footballer in Britain?
No, and this is a distinction worth getting right. Tull was the first Black outfield player to reach the Football League. The goalkeeper Arthur Wharton had turned professional in 1889, roughly two decades earlier, so Tull was not the first Black professional footballer in Britain if goalkeepers are counted. The word outfield is what makes the claim accurate.
Was Walter Tull the first Black officer in the British Army?
Tottenham’s careful phrasing is that Tull, British-born, was the first Black officer to hold a combat commission in the army, and even that is contested. Earlier officers of Black and mixed heritage had already been commissioned, including Euan Lucie-Smith, George Bemand and David Clemetson, all commissioned before Tull’s May 1917 promotion and all born in Jamaica. The National Football Museum itself hedges, presenting his profile as a question rather than a flat statement. What is not in dispute is that he was commissioned to lead white troops at a time when army regulations forbade it.
Which clubs did Walter Tull play for before the war?
Tull played for Tottenham Hotspur from 1909 to 1911 and then Northampton Town until the outbreak of war. He arrived at Spurs from the amateur club Clapton and made his debut in a 3-1 defeat at Sunderland on 1 September 1909. At Northampton, signed by Herbert Chapman, he played 110 games and scored nine. Rangers were interested in him before the war intervened.
How and when did Walter Tull die in 1918?
Tull was killed on 25 March 1918 during the German Spring Offensive, hit by machine-gun fire as he tried to rally his men. He was serving with the 23rd Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, having earlier fought on the Somme and in Italy. His men attempted to bring his body back under heavy fire but could not reach him, so he has no grave. His name is inscribed on the Arras Memorial, within the Faubourg d’Amiens cemetery.
What was McCrae’s Battalion and what did it have to do with Hearts?
McCrae’s Battalion was the 16th (Service) Battalion of the Royal Scots, raised in Edinburgh in November 1914 by Sir George McCrae. Sixteen Heart of Midlothian players enlisted, thirteen of them in a single recruitment drive, at a point when Hearts were leading the Scottish First Division. It was the earliest of the Footballers’ battalions, a model that led to the 17th Middlesex in England, which Walter Tull joined. Players and supporters of several other Scottish clubs enlisted alongside the Hearts men.
How many Hearts players died in the First World War?
Seven Heart of Midlothian players who enlisted died as a result of the war. They were Speedie, Gracie, Currie, Ellis, Wattie, Boyd and Allan. Four of them were killed on the Somme in 1916 and have no grave but the Thiepval Memorial. Others returned so badly wounded, in body or mind, that they could not play again.
Did Hearts win the league in 1914-15?
No, Hearts finished second, four points adrift of Celtic. The side led the top flight for 35 of the season’s 37 weeks before their form faded under the strain of military training. They had begun with eight straight wins, beating reigning champions Celtic 2-0 among them. Tom Gracie was the league’s leading scorer that year with a club-record 30 goals, while already ill with the leukaemia that would kill him.
Where is Walter Tull commemorated today?
Tull is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, which stands at Faubourg d’Amiens cemetery in France, where his name sits among nearly 35,000 men with no known grave. The former Leicester Fosse goalkeeper Tom Billingham, a fellow footballer, tried to recover his body under fire and could not. His story has since been retold in books and on stage. He is remembered too at Northampton Town, the club where he spent most of his career.
Was Walter Tull awarded the Military Cross?
No, Tull was recommended for the Military Cross but it was not granted. He was Mentioned in Despatches for a raid on the enemy trenches on New Year’s Day 1918, and was praised for his coolness and gallantry under fire. Campaigns have since argued that he was denied the medal, though the surviving records do not settle why the recommendation was not carried through. The recommendation itself is documented.
Why does 11 November matter to football’s war remembrance?
The Armistice that ended the fighting on the Western Front took effect on 11 November 1918, which is why remembrance falls on that date. Football lost players from clubs across Britain, from Tottenham and Northampton to Heart of Midlothian, and the game marks the day with silences before matches and poppies on shirts. Walter Tull died in March 1918, eight months before the Armistice. The date gathers all of these losses into one act of remembrance.
Did other footballers serve alongside Walter Tull?
Yes, Tull enlisted in the 17th (Football) Battalion, a Middlesex Regiment unit raised specifically for footballers and the men who followed them. He served with the former Tottenham and England amateur forward Vivian Woodward. The battalion was the English answer to McCrae’s Battalion in Scotland, which drew in sixteen Hearts players. Footballers from many clubs enlisted in these units, and a large number did not survive.
Walter Tull and the game’s act of remembrance
Walter Tull’s name endures because the record is specific enough to carry the weight: a documented career, a documented commission against the rules, a documented death with no grave. Set beside the seven Hearts men and the battalions raised from the terraces, it turns Armistice Day from an abstraction into a list of players who can be named. You can follow more of those dates through our On This Day series.
Sources: Tottenham Hotspur, Football and the First World War, National Football Museum, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Heart of Midlothian, McCrae’s Battalion Trust.
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