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00:01More than a quarter of Premiership footballers today are black,
00:05earning fortunes and being adored by fans.
00:08But when the game began, it was almost exclusively white.
00:11That is, until one black Briton had the determination, guts and skill
00:17to cross the white line.
00:20Almost a hundred years ago, he was one of the first black professional players.
00:25And he was playing at the very highest level.
00:28You would think that alone would be enough to guarantee him a place in history.
00:35But not only was he a footballing hero, he also became an officer in the British Army.
00:41An army that referred to black people as woolly-headed niggers in official correspondence.
00:47But he still fought and died for this country, his country.
00:54His name was Walter Daniel Tull.
00:58Despite an upbringing that was scarred by tragedy, he grew up to be a leader of men
01:04and became the first black officer in the British Army.
01:11He fought on the Western Front, at Passchendaele and the Somme.
01:16After leading his men on a daring mission, he was nominated for a military cross,
01:21which he never received.
01:23He's a British war hero.
01:25But if you look at the history books, his name is conspicuously absent.
01:29For some reason, his achievements have long been ignored.
01:33He's the first black person to be commissioned in the British Army.
01:36Surely there should be something, and he should be somebody that everybody has heard of.
01:40They didn't want men of colour to join.
01:43Full stop.
01:44What was it they were afraid of?
01:46Black officers commanding white men.
01:52Every year, we pay our respects to all those who have fallen in battle.
01:56But some soldiers are more unknown than others.
02:21When I was growing up in Birmingham in the 1970s, I loved stories of British heroes of yesteryear.
02:29But as I got older, I realised there weren't any British heroes who looked like me.
02:36When I was at school, British history seemed to be entirely white.
02:40And as a black kid growing up, the only images that I knew of black British history
02:45were slavery and the Windrush migration.
02:47Then about ten years ago, I read about a football match being organised by my local MP, Bernie Grant.
02:53A memorial match in honour of Walter Tull.
02:57And I thought to myself, Walter who?
03:00And when I looked into Walter Tull, I found a boy's own hero.
03:05He ran out at football grounds across England, ignored the abuse and fought for every ball.
03:11And as if that wasn't enough, he then became an officer in the British Army,
03:15where he led his white men on missions across enemy lines.
03:21He was exactly the black British hero I'd never had as a kid.
03:28I became obsessed with Walter Tull.
03:30His story both inspired and angered me.
03:33And now, 90 years after his death, we can finally put together the pieces of Walter's life
03:40and rediscover a true black British hero.
03:51So, I'm going on a journey in search of this forgotten hero.
03:57It's a journey that will take me from the East End of London, where Walter was brought up as an
04:02orphan,
04:03to the football grounds where he felt the full force of society's racism.
04:11And following in Walter's footsteps, I'll travel to the battlefields of France, where he fought so heroically.
04:20And I'll be asking the question, why, to this day, has Walter's bravery gone unrecognised?
04:30But my journey begins here in the archives, and digging around in old match reports of the time,
04:36I found the first mentions of his name.
04:42In 1909, the newspapers reported that Spurs had signed an exciting young forward called Walter Tull,
04:48in a move they called the catch of the season.
04:53And it's by looking in the newspapers that I can begin to get an understanding of the era that shaped
04:58Walter.
04:59At the beginning of the 1900s, Queen Victoria's reign had just come to an end,
05:05and Britain had a vast global empire.
05:11It was also the era when football was leaving behind its public school origins,
05:15and becoming a huge spectator sport for the working classes.
05:23And the big clubs like Newcastle, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur were always eager to attract new talent.
05:33These tattered old pictures show Walter making his home debut in front of 32,000 fans at White Hart Lane.
05:41The match report in the Chronicle stated,
05:43Tull is very good indeed.
05:46Walter was young, handsome, smart, and on his way to becoming a star player at Spurs.
05:53He had the world at his very talented feet.
06:02For a signing on fee of £10, Spurs now had one of Britain's first black professional footballers on their books.
06:11You'd think that it would be a proud part of the club's history, but the truth is very different.
06:18So I'm going to meet a former Spurs star who, for many years, thought he was the club's first black
06:24player.
06:26And it was only by chance that Garth Crooks found out about Walter.
06:31So, Garth, how did you first come across Walter Tull?
06:35Well, I first came across Walter Tull by accident, actually.
06:39I was at White Hart Lane, we'd finished training, and I found myself in the O'Crew, adjacent to the
06:44boardroom.
06:45And in those days, in the early 80s, they had pictures, you know, pictures going from the 60s right through
06:51to the 1900s.
06:52And I found myself looking at these pictures and, you know, 61, 62, the famous double winning side, and you
06:59go through that.
07:00And I found myself looking at a picture that dated back to 1909.
07:05You can see a young black lad, a very handsome looking lad, in a typical team photo, legs crossed, arms
07:12folded, hair parted in the middle.
07:15I thought, who the hell is he?
07:17At that time, I thought I was one of the very few black players who played for the Tottenham first
07:23team.
07:24And, erm, I looked along the list of names, I looked, it was a W, Tull.
07:32Playing for Tottenham Hotspur was very special, it was a big club, it had a great history, you were a
07:37part of that.
07:38So he was playing right at the very height of football, spoke to the Tottenham historian.
07:46He'd never heard of him.
07:49I thought, this is incredible, why don't, why have I not heard about this lad?
07:54Finding out about Walter is difficult.
07:57When I looked in Spurs' official history, I could find no mention of his name.
08:02Seemed as if football had chosen to forget him, and I wanted to know why.
08:06So I've come to meet Phil Vassili, the football historian who rediscovered Walter in 1993, and is writing his biography.
08:15First of all, how did you discover the story?
08:19It was by chance, really, because I was researching the history of black footballers in Britain.
08:25And, as you do, you get your head down into books, and you just look through biographies, annuals, encyclopedias and
08:34things.
08:35And I came across in an encyclopaedia by Maurice Goldsworthy, written in the 60s, I think.
08:44And it had just a couple of lines, really, about D-Tull, not W-D-Tull, Tottenham Hotspur.
08:53And thinking, well, how come this guy played for Spurs, such a big club, and he hadn't been remembered?
08:58The more I found out about his life, every tiny piece of information, every scrap of detail, captivated me, really.
09:08And I thought, how come he's been forgotten, this guy?
09:12Was it a rarity to see black players on the pitch in the Edwardian period?
09:17There were other black footballers around, but they were few and far between.
09:22The first black professional in England dates back to the 1880s, when gentleman goalkeeper Arthur Wharton played for Preston North
09:30End.
09:30But Walter was playing when the game was exploding as a spectator sport.
09:35Obviously, Spurs were a big club at the time, and in terms of status and the quality of football that
09:40he was playing,
09:41and the quality of footballers he was playing with, that first year at Tottenham was just another world for him.
09:49With huge crowds watching his every move, Walter was one of the most high-profile black men in Edwardian Britain.
09:56The fans nicknamed him Darky Tull, and I want to know if this was typical of the kind of attitudes
10:02he would have been up against.
10:03So, I put it to Dr Hakim Adi, who has studied the black presence in Britain.
10:09How were black people perceived by the general population?
10:13Racism was part of British society, and it's something which, if you like, reflected what was going on in the
10:20world.
10:21Britain was a major colonial power. It had an empire.
10:24And the aim was to uphold, if you like, the hierarchy which existed in that empire.
10:31White was on top, black was at the bottom.
10:35So, these ideas were around, and they filtered down to ordinary people in the street,
10:42through the church, through missionaries, through musical, through popular books and comics, and so on and so forth.
10:51We have to remember that racism wasn't illegal in Britain until 1965. Racism was entirely legal.
10:58It was only a moral or an ethical question. It wasn't a legal question.
11:07Walter's story forces us to face some of the prejudices of the past.
11:13And amongst the match reports, results and statistics, I've uncovered evidence of the racist abuse that Walter faced.
11:26On the 2nd of October 1909, Tottenham Hotspur came here, to Bristol City.
11:33And Walter played in a game that almost finished his Spurs career.
11:53It was here that a section of the crowd of 20,000 consistently jeered and abused the black player.
12:00The reporter from the Football Star witnessed the crowd's relentless hostility towards Walter, and was outraged by their behaviour.
12:08Candidly, Tull has much to contend with on account of his colour.
12:11His tactics were absolutely beyond reproach, but he became the butt of ignorant partisan.
12:17A section of the spectators made a cowardly attack upon him, in language lower than Billingsgate.
12:23They were quite ruthless in their targeting of Tull, with racist comments and abuse.
12:29From the kick-off, it was a rough game.
12:31And to the fury of the home crowd, Walter gave as good as he got.
12:36There was this black man going round the field, knocking over their white players, and they didn't like it.
12:41You know, so he got a stick for it.
12:45They just gave him a lot of abuse.
12:50These days, clubs like Bristol City are fully signed up to initiatives like kick racism out of football.
12:56But in the early days of the game, the players and the crowds were rough and ready.
13:00So I asked football historian David Goldblatt to describe how the crowds would have reacted
13:05when Walter ran out onto the pitch on that fateful Saturday afternoon.
13:10Would it be fair to assume that many people watching Walter Tull play would have never seen a black face
13:16before?
13:17No. Well, football is white. Football is white.
13:20You know, you've got a cauldron-like atmosphere. Crowds could be roused to pitch invasions, stone-throwing, you know,
13:27as well as kind of pretty full-on cussing of one kind or another.
13:31I mean, what's separating you and the pitch is hardly anything in most places.
13:36You've got people crowded together. Yeah, I mean, people are looking for weakness in the opposition.
13:42People are looking for something to pick on. People are looking for a way of getting under the opposition's skin.
13:50Bristol's got serious slaving heritage.
13:53We know Bristol, you know, to a great extent, its finery and its wealth and its pomp is built on
13:59stolen lives and stolen labour.
14:01And therefore, you know, you've got a very particular attitude, I would think, a mixture of, you know, guilt and
14:09derision, I suspect,
14:10in attitudes towards black people in Bristol. You know, it's had much more intimate contact with, let's face it,
14:17the business end of violent imperialism.
14:21That said, we know about the Bristol incident because somebody wrote it down.
14:25I mean, I find it hard to believe that Bristol would have been the only place that he was likely
14:30to receive that kind of,
14:32that kind of response.
14:34You've gone to Liverpool, you've gone to Manchester, you know, I could imagine just the same thing happening to him.
14:45Walter's experiences at Bristol City were one of the first reported instances of racism in football.
14:55But it's a problem that's persisted throughout the century.
15:02I want to know what this abuse does to a young black player.
15:06So I've come to Tottenham Hotspur's home ground to speak to a player who's experienced racist abuse
15:12and a sports journalist who's reported on racism in the game.
15:16How did the abuse, the bigotry, how did it manifest itself for you as a player?
15:22Well, I always remember when you initially walk out and you run into the field and the booing, the monkey
15:31chanting.
15:32But obviously in the 80s in this country, there was also the banana throwing.
15:36I remember one particular game, he sort of ran out of play and I sort of chased it.
15:40And then all the supporters were sort of leaning as if they were going to jump out at you.
15:44And I thought, whew!
15:45I took that in the sort of late 70s moving on.
15:49You know, imagine Walter Tull, you know, in 1900 to have actually played in that environment.
15:54He'd done that with a distinction and I think a humility.
16:01He never really was in receipt of the fullest appreciation of what he's done and what he's achieved.
16:07But it's great that we're talking about him now because we can see in a typical Premiership game,
16:12Tottenham-Arsenal, Tottenham-Chelsea, with the representation of black players in those sorts of games,
16:17that you've got to train it back to Walter Tull.
16:19Yes, it's a wonderful, poignant story and I think one that I feel that it's had a very, very lasting
16:28impression on me.
16:30Like many players since, Walter didn't react to the racist abuse.
16:35According to the Eyewitness Report, he seemed to rise above it.
16:40Let me tell these Bristol hooligans that Tull is so clean in mind and method as to be a model
16:46for all white men who play football.
16:49Tull was the best forward on the field.
16:53Walter clearly had great composure, courage and resolve.
16:57He needed it on the pitch and in later life he would need it on the battlefield.
17:02And from the very beginning, Walter had to be brave.
17:12I've come to Folkestone on the south coast of England.
17:15It was here in this small Victorian seaside town that Walter was born.
17:26And from the very beginning, Walter didn't have to look far for an inspirational role model.
17:31It appears courage and determination ran in the family.
17:34His father, Daniel Tull, who was the son of a slave, always stood up for what he believed was right.
17:44He was quite a feisty character, I think, Daniel, because he left Barbados because he was badly treated by the
17:52man he was apprenticed to as a joiner.
17:55He went round the guy's house and demanded his wages and I think they exchanged blows.
18:00But anyway, for whatever reason, he left Barbados.
18:06In about 1876 he came to Britain, he worked on a ship, I think, as a carpenter, and ended up
18:12in Folkestone.
18:16Just like my own father, Walter's dad came to Britain in search of a better life.
18:21And though it's rarely mentioned in the history books, there was a small but visible black British presence.
18:33Daniel arrived at the end of the 19th century.
18:36It's difficult to say exactly how many black people were around, but we're talking about tens of thousands of people.
18:43And at that time there were significant populations of black people, particularly in port cities like London, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow.
18:53People would have been aware of a black presence.
18:56In Folkestone it would not have been such a common sight.
19:01Daniel settled in Folkestone and at the local Methodist church he met, then married, Alice Palmer, a local white girl.
19:09The records don't show how a mixed race couple were received in a small Victorian town.
19:15But Daniel earned a regular wage as a skilled carpenter and the Tulls started a family.
19:21Walter was born in April 1888, the couple's fifth child.
19:26With his brothers and sisters, he grew up in a close-knit, loving family in this small house in a
19:32working class suburb of Folkestone.
19:34And at the local school he learned how to read and write.
19:37And, of course, about the glories of the British Empire.
19:41But the poor lad was about to be hit by a succession of tragedies that even Charles Dickens would have
19:46struggled to dream up.
19:48When Walter was just six years old, his mother died of breast cancer.
19:53His father remarried.
19:55But three years later, Daniel Tull died of heart disease.
20:00There was no money to feed the remaining family.
20:03The Tull children were devastated and destitute.
20:07And the horrors of the workhouse loomed.
20:15They were prisons of the poor.
20:18They were horrendous institutions.
20:21They were the spectre that haunted every working class family.
20:26That kept working class people in place.
20:29People would do anything and everything to keep out of the workhouse.
20:35But fortunately, God saved the Tull boys from the workhouse.
20:39Well, not God exactly, but the Methodist church.
20:43Walter and his older brother were sent away from their family home to a Methodist children's orphanage in the grimy
20:50East End of London.
20:56It's hard to imagine the fear that these young boys must have felt arriving in the world's biggest city in
21:031898.
21:06There were 330 orphan children packed within the walls of the children's home at Bonner Road, most of whom were
21:13tough city street kids.
21:15And Walter's brother wrote about their unhappy introduction to life at the home.
21:20A bell rings. It is 6.20 a.m.
21:23All the boys in their room rise and dress, after which they make their beds.
21:28Being newcomers, we start at the bottom.
21:30And naturally the bottom is cleaning of boots, or rather shoes.
21:35Not one pair, but all the pairs of the household.
21:38The sisters especially.
21:40Having finished 15 pairs of shoes, an inspection by the sister is enacted and, if favourable, put away in various
21:46lockers.
21:47Breakfast came as a happy relief.
21:56Life was clearly hard for the Toll Boys.
21:59And I met Laura Peters, who has researched Victorian orphanages to try to understand their experience.
22:06So, Walter and his brother Edward arrive in London.
22:09Their parents have recently passed away.
22:11What sort of experience might they have gone through?
22:16I think they would have been very homesick.
22:18I think they would have missed the rest of their siblings.
22:20They were from a large family.
22:22And I think they would probably find that the discipline was quite strict.
22:28I think it would have been a real shock to Edward and Walter.
22:33What were the social connotations of the label orphan?
22:38In the 19th century, if you were an orphan, you were bereft of happiness, of hope, of joy.
22:44So, it was a condition, not only of being without parents, but being quite miserable and disadvantaged and vulnerable.
22:53Being of mixed race would have meant that they were fairly marginalised within society.
23:02It was a tough childhood, but Walter stood up for himself and settled quickly.
23:08In fact, it was his older brother who found life more difficult.
23:13I was homesick and a little frightened.
23:16Walter, being of a sturdier mould, seemed ready to sample new ways and new means.
23:24I'm beginning to get a sense of how difficult life was for these two kids,
23:28and how Walter in particular had to develop a thick skin just to survive.
23:34Every day, there were prayers, lessons and work.
23:37A disciplined approach that sought to improve the children.
23:42These two little boys, they arrived at Bonner Road into an uncertain world, an uncertain environment.
23:49They'd lost both their parents.
23:52It must have been a huge turning point for both lads.
23:56For nearly three years, the brothers were inseparable.
23:59But then, life dealt Walter another cruel blow.
24:04Both tall boys had fine voices and sang in the orphanage choir.
24:09In 1900, they sang at St John's Methodist Church in Glasgow.
24:18The touring orphanage choir charmed the audience, and Edward Tull was spotted by a middle-class couple who then asked
24:26to adopt the boy.
24:28On the 8th of November, 1900, Walter's brother left the orphanage and took the train to begin a new life
24:34with his new family in Glasgow.
24:40Walter was now completely alone.
24:46It's obvious he was very, very upset because his school work suffered.
24:51There were reports of his behaviour getting worse.
24:55The years between 1900 and about 1903 were very difficult years for Walter.
25:03You know, it had been one tragedy after the other.
25:07It was a very, very difficult time.
25:11But Walter came out fighting.
25:14Somehow, he found the will to survive such a traumatic childhood.
25:19And through the orphanage football team, he found a means of escape.
25:26At the age of 20, his determination and talent saw him star for amateur team Clapton Orient.
25:34And when I look at him in the Clapton team photo, I see a young man who has somehow found
25:40an inner strength.
25:43When he joined Spurs, he could have had no way of knowing how much that inner strength would be tested.
25:52The racist abuse Walter suffered at Bristol City signalled the end of his Spurs career.
25:58He played only seven times for the club in the 1909 season and found himself isolated from the first team
26:04and confined to the reserves.
26:06It seemed as if Spurs weren't prepared to stand up for their player and Walter became the forgotten man.
26:13There were certain people within the Spurs management and directors that just thought it's too much hassle.
26:21We don't need it.
26:22Walter might be a good player, but he's not good for team spirit or morale because we get, you know,
26:28we become the subject of abuse and we can do without it.
26:32And Walter became a victim twice over.
26:37A victim of the abuse and then of the consequences of the abuse.
26:45In 1911, Walter left Spurs and London behind and joined Northampton Town.
26:59His career had been held back for two frustrating seasons, but here in this small industrial town, he had the
27:06chance for a new start.
27:09This is where Walter lived when he was playing for Northampton.
27:12Now, Northampton was nothing like cosmopolitan London, nor was it a port town.
27:17In 1911, this was the kind of place when they'd never even seen a black person before.
27:21But Walter was black, playing football, scoring goals and thriving.
27:30It seemed after years of turmoil, Walter had finally found a home.
27:35But as Northampton moved up the league, the German army moved across Europe.
27:42Association football was no longer celebrated as the great British spectator sport.
27:48With war fast approaching, it was now seen as a dangerous distraction.
27:59When Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914, there was no conscription.
28:04The war office needed volunteers and asked every brave British man to stand up and fight for their country.
28:10Walter answered the call.
28:15On 21 December 1914, Walter left his home in Northampton, travelled the 60 miles south to London and presented himself
28:24at the recruitment office.
28:26He was ready to fight for his country, but his country wasn't so sure.
28:30The taste of the army's attitude to African people can be found in the 1914 edition of the Manual of
28:38Military Law.
28:39Under a heading which reads, Coloured Troops, it states,
28:42Troops formed of coloured individuals belonging to savage tribes and barbarous races
28:48should not be employed in a war between civilised states.
28:53They didn't want men of colour to join.
28:57Full stop.
28:59The usual ploy used by the recruitment people was, you know, there's a black guy that's just walked in,
29:07well, tell him to read the eye test from this end of the room, you'll never see it.
29:12You know, kind of, fail him somewhere, use a bureaucratic procedure to fail him.
29:19Now they couldn't do it with Walter.
29:21When Walter turned up, he was a known man, you know, this was a guy that played for Spurs,
29:26played for Northampton, was on cigarette cards and newspapers.
29:29He was a bit of a face, you know, that walked through the door.
29:33So it's difficult to fail him on the medical because he's a fit footballer.
29:40Walter became the 55th member of the newly formed and utterly unique first football battalion.
29:47The battalion was a result of the F.A. and the War Office joining forces to tap into the game's
29:52popularity.
29:54And this archive gives a rare glimpse of the football stars of the day, training for war.
30:00So why did the army want to turn players into soldiers?
30:04I met military historian Andrew Riddick.
30:07What was the formation of the football battalion, an attempt to do?
30:11When it was set up, it was always envisaged that professional footballers would join
30:16and they would be used to encourage the club supporters to join up beside them.
30:21Some of these people would have been real heroes of the game.
30:24There was an attraction of serving alongside people who they turned up every week to watch.
30:30Two major concessions were granted to the footballers battalion.
30:33One was that the height requirement was waived, the height requirement was five foot three.
30:37And because a lot of footballers were quite small, this was waived.
30:40And the other one was that the players could continue to turn out for their clubs until the end of
30:46the season.
30:50At camps like these, Walter trained with the battalion through the week, then on Saturdays travelled across the country to
30:57play for Northampton.
30:58He stood out in the football battalion and was rapidly promoted to Lance Sergeant.
31:10And he played right up until the final game of the season, in what was to be his last appearance
31:16as a professional footballer.
31:29In November 1915, Walter finished his basic training with the first football.
31:34And the battalion boarded a ship at Folkestone and crossed the English Channel set for war-torn France.
31:41This was no longer a game.
31:46But no amount of training could have prepared him to face the horrific realities of the Western Front.
31:57The war was being fought from muddy trenches that ran for hundreds of miles across northern France.
32:05Young men who signed up in search of glory were being slaughtered in their thousands.
32:13The Kaiser's army were making advances, and husbands, brothers, sons and teammates died every day in their attempts to stop
32:21the German onslaught.
32:22As an NCR, Walter would have been taken straight to the front line, where he would have experienced first hand
32:28the confusion, the chaos and the carnage, but also the camaraderie and the courage of front line life.
32:39They were sent almost immediately to a really difficult part of the front line around Givenchy and Festabe, which all
32:48of the soldiers hated because the trenches, you couldn't build deep trenches because it was very sandy.
32:54And so you'd be sheltering behind butts and sandbags and stuff.
32:58So, you know, the death rate was high and it was constant kind of exchange of fire.
33:08And so those first few months were a real shock to Walter.
33:19In the freezing, muddy trenches, Walter fought shoulder to shoulder with his comrades in the football battalion.
33:29It was a terrifying environment, where to survive men had to trust one another.
33:40And I want to know if even here Walter was judged by the colour of his skin.
33:48So I met with military historian Richard Holmes.
33:52I want to talk a little bit about the men who would have served alongside Walter.
33:58May they have had certain opinions about fighting alongside a black man, you know, as an equal?
34:06They might very well have had some reservations, but I mean, here was a man who was brave, who had
34:13a great reputation as a footballer beforehand.
34:15And he had a lot going for him. I mean, this is a crucible which brings men close and they
34:25get closer to one another than you and I could possibly imagine.
34:29So most of the people that he soldiered with wouldn't have had those attitudes to race.
34:36Would it have been a tremendous shock what they saw and experienced in those early days?
34:41It wasn't simply a shock because you had a chance of being killed and wounded, but the physical conditions of
34:46the front went and cold and you would be dirty and you would have lice.
34:51And then the experience of trench life and with it sniping and shelling was a shock.
35:00During a break in hostilities, Walter wrote what he hoped would be a reassuring letter to his guardians of the
35:07orphanage, where he described the unnerving mix of tension and adrenaline.
35:14For the last three weeks, my battalion has been resting some miles distant from the firing line, but we are
35:19now going up to the trenches for a month or so.
35:22Afterwards, we shall begin to think of coming home on leave.
35:26It is a monotonous life out here when we are supposed to be resting and most of the boys prefer
35:31the excitement of the trenches to the comparative in action whilst in reserve.
35:37We don't know whether Walter's eagerness to see more frontline conflict was bravado, inexperience or whether he was hiding the
35:45true nature of the conflict.
35:46But what we do know is that when Walter did finally see what he called the excitement of the trenches,
35:53it very nearly destroyed him.
36:03On April the 28th, 1916, the slaughter, the panic and the unrelenting horror of war took its toll on Walter.
36:12He was diagnosed with acute mania, what we would now call post-traumatic stress disorder, and was removed from the
36:19front line.
36:20It was his 28th birthday.
36:27Very often it was associated with bombardment, hence the expression often used shell shock, because it was believed that it
36:35originated from the concussion effect of a bursting shell,
36:39which simply rocked your brain. Actually, not so.
36:42We would now call this some form of stress reaction to what happened in battle, psychiatric rather than physical.
36:51What had happened to Walter was that something wholly shocking, probably connected with artillery bombardment, had knocked him off balance,
36:58and he was going to need time to recover.
37:06Nobody could ever have envisaged the industrial scale of the horror and carnage of the First World War.
37:13If the phrase hell on earth has any meaning, it had a meaning then, and I think it broke Walter.
37:19The sheer terror that Walter and the other men faced on a daily basis is difficult for my generation to
37:26imagine.
37:27But even on a warm autumn day, 92 years later, these surviving trenches seem haunted by the ghosts of the
37:34past.
37:36To be here gives me a real sense of Walter because I don't think you can understand Walter Tull without
37:43understanding those months and those years towards the end of his life and what he went through.
37:51I feel being here as if it brings me slightly closer to him, I feel I've got a better sense
37:59of who he was and how these experiences forged the man.
38:10Walter was returned to England to recover. The friends he left behind he would never see again.
38:22Half the football battalion fell as casualties on the Somme that summer.
38:27By the end of the war, only 30 men remained and the first football battalion was disbanded.
38:45Five months later, Walter returned to the Western Front with a new regiment.
38:50His courage in overcoming shell shock and the way he commanded the respect of his men were noted by his
38:57commanding officer.
38:57And then, in November 1916, something unprecedented happened.
39:03Sergeant W.D. Tull, a black working class man, was recommended for officer training.
39:11Up until then, there'd never been a black officer in a UK-based combat regiment before.
39:17And this is the part of Walter's story that's always bothered me.
39:21Could it really be that the British Army didn't believe that black men were fit to become officers?
39:31So I've come here to the National Archive to see if Walter's military record can shed some light on this
39:37crucial question.
39:38And taking me through his record is the National Archive's military specialist, William Spencer.
39:45So what have we got in front of us here?
39:48We have here the record of service of Walter Tull.
39:51We actually have the form for his commission.
39:56So we get Walter Daniel Tull, date of birth, 28th April 1888, whether married, no.
40:03Whether of pure European descent, no.
40:06Whether British subjects by birth or naturalisation, by birth.
40:11Right, if I can just come to the fourth point that says whether of pure European descent.
40:19Of course, Walter answers no to that.
40:21But could you clarify what that exactly meant from a military perspective?
40:26Basically, what they were really trying to do was to grant commissions to people with white people.
40:35I think, is to put it in basic terms.
40:38Whilst this form might appear to be very rigid and saying,
40:41well, we only want to commission white people.
40:46They do actually have subsequent questions.
40:49It's not that sole question and there's not a form of get out.
40:52Was it army policy not to commission anybody who wasn't of pure European descent?
40:59The rules are there for interpretation.
41:04Do you believe a colour bar, such as we understand it, existed at the period when Walter joined and served?
41:11It's not categorical, you will not.
41:14Of course they want to ask the question.
41:16I want to get clarification of why, whether of pure European descent is on this form.
41:23It seems to me that this is a racist question, right?
41:27What I want to do is have a look at the manual of military law.
41:32This is the British Army's definitive rule book from the time, and it clearly states,
41:37commissions in the special reserve of officers are given to qualified candidates
41:42who are natural born or naturalised British subjects of pure European descent.
41:49Why specifically was that there?
41:53The form says, asks a question which, yes, it is probably racist
41:58and they want white men to command white troops.
42:01What was it they were afraid of?
42:03Black officers commanding white men.
42:05But why?
42:06But why, yes.
42:07What I'm trying to get a handle on is why the army didn't see a black man commanding white troops
42:15as a perfectly natural thing for a man of Walter's abilities to do.
42:20I think it comes down to the issue of respect and whether a white ordinary soldier would respect a black
42:30officer.
42:33Here in black and white, buried in the army's legal tomes, is evidence of just how exceptional Walter Toll was.
42:42The rules were broken and the rule book was thrown away in this case.
42:46And, you know, legally he should never have been recommended, never have got past the actual application stage.
42:54But because of the quality of the man, the strength of his character, he got through and was appointed to
43:01commission on the end of May 1917.
43:06The fact that Walter wasn't of pure European descent would have been an absolute prohibition.
43:12Now, I don't think for a moment it was right and one of the things that commissioning someone like Walter
43:19Toll did was made a start, a very small start, in reversing that great tide of what I would call
43:30instinctive, deep-seated cultural prejudice.
43:35Walter may have set a precedent, but the colour bar remained.
43:38The next black officer in the British army wasn't commissioned for another 23 years.
43:45In order to understand Walter, to make sense of his legacy and his achievements, it's important to look at documents
43:53like the documents I have in front of me,
43:55the documents that state that they didn't want black officers to be commissioned within the UK-based regiments.
44:03Because then you get an understanding of Walter's special qualities and the fact that he was a man within all
44:11that, that was able to get his head down, get on with the job and serve with distinction.
44:18And I think that's something to be applauded and respected in Walter Toll.
44:32Walter was appointed to a commission in the special reserve of officers and spent the spring of 1917 training on
44:39Scotland's west coast.
45:04Before returning to the trenches, Walter took the opportunity to be reunited with his brother Edward.
45:11Both men had come a long way since they were separated at the orphanage, and Edward had also had to
45:16overcome racial prejudice, but had settled in Scotland.
45:25Following in Walter's footsteps, I've come to Scotland to track down Edward's remaining family.
45:31On my journey, I've examined historical documents, scoured newspaper reports, and marvelled at what Walter achieved.
45:38But it's difficult getting to know who Walter really was. He didn't get married or have children, and I want
45:44to get beyond the official records.
45:48So I've come to this small town in the north of Scotland, in the hope that Edward's family can give
45:53me a sense of what Walter was really like.
46:01And I met up with 91-year-old Duncan, who married Edward Toll's daughter and is now the proud keeper
46:08of the family archive.
46:11That's him. That's Edward. And there's Walter on leave, possibly his last leave.
46:17There's a family resemblance there, isn't there? That's right. I mean, I've mentioned the Toll jawline before. That's very much
46:23in evidence there, isn't it?
46:25Edward was really one of the finest men I ever knew. Wonderful man. I mean, that fastened on to my
46:33enormous regard for Walter.
46:37Duncan and his children are Walter's closest surviving family, and their grandfather, Edward, often spoke of his little brother, Walter.
46:45How well did you know Edward? Grandpa died when I was four, so I didn't know him all that well,
46:51but I mean, I do remember him.
46:53And I just remember him being a lot of fun and very kind of warm person.
46:57Were they very similar as personalities?
46:59Yes, there was a strength of character and an outlook that was the same, a sort of, you know, moral
47:08stability and resolve.
47:11What abides with me is that certainly right from the beginning he spoke about Walter and about their particular closeness.
47:21Was there a sense of pride that his brother was this great sports hero?
47:25Those are my, you know, my early memories of both my grandfather, Edward, and Walter. You know, pride that you
47:32had a grand uncle that was a professional footballer.
47:34Nobody else knew about him then, but you know, his pictures were on the wall and, you know, it was
47:39part of the kind of family history.
47:41And as children, you know, we were always proud of him being in the first black commissioned officer.
47:50Having become an officer, Walter led by example and undoubtedly earned the respect of the white men he commanded.
47:57He faced the swamp like mud and mustard gas attacks of Passchendaele.
48:02And on the Italian front, Walter showed true courage and leadership.
48:08Second Lieutenant Tull was ordered to lead a group of men across the dangerous, fast flowing river Piave and attack
48:15the forward positions of German and Austrian troops.
48:18He led from the front and brought his men back without a single casualty.
48:25And in amongst the family photos and the war memorabilia, I spotted a remarkable testimony to Walter's bravery that day.
48:33What about this document here?
48:35That is the citation by the commanding officer after his crossing of the river Piave.
48:43I wish to place on record my appreciation of your gallantry and coolness.
48:50During the raid, you took the covering party of the main body across and brought them back without a casualty
48:58in spite of heavy fire.
49:02I can't imagine the fear that Walter must have had to overcome to lead his men across that icy river
49:08on New Year's Day 1918.
49:11The fighting around the Piave River was crucial in holding back the Germans.
49:15And by leading a successful mission behind enemy lines, Walter was truly heroic.
49:21When a major writes such a glowing citation, a medal usually follows.
49:26But Walter never received that medal.
49:30His family are well aware of his bravery.
49:33But here, amongst his closest relatives, he is remembered not only as a war hero, but as part of a
49:40loving family.
49:41Which is perhaps what Walter would have wanted most.
49:45This is one of the perhaps last photographs taken of them together.
49:50Walter.
49:50He declared, I mean, how much, how close Walter and he were.
49:56And I was just very moved by the story.
50:01So close was the bond between the Toll brothers, that before returning to the front line, Walter made plans to
50:07move to Scotland after the war,
50:09to be closer to Edward, and to resume his football career with Glasgow Rangers.
50:16But Walter never got the chance.
50:22The war that was supposed to be over by Christmas was now into its third year.
50:27And amidst the mud and the shelling, Walter wrote to his brother.
50:34Dear Eddie, Fritz was shelling the back area like a demon.
50:39And after dodging about from trench to trench, we got fed up and struck across country.
50:44Now one mass of shell holes.
50:46I pushed for the nearest village.
50:48I must have been within 200 yards of the place when I nearly collapsed.
50:53After a rest, I proceeded on my journey, reaching the transport lines at about eight o'clock.
50:58I got into bed.
50:59All the guns in France couldn't wipe me.
51:03Love to all.
51:05Yours affectionately.
51:08Walter.
51:11Walter.
51:12In March 1918, Walter was sent back here to the Somme.
51:16It was becoming clear that the Germans were going to lose the war.
51:20And in a last desperate attempt to break through Allied lines, the German army launched the Spring Offensive.
51:27The fighting became increasingly bloody.
51:30And the Allies desperately defended their positions.
51:33Walter and his men put up fierce resistance.
51:39These fields are where Walter's story ends.
51:48On the 25th of March 1918, an advancing German soldier took aim, pulled the trigger and fired on a British
51:57officer.
51:59The bullet hit Walter in the neck and he fell into the mud of the Somme.
52:05He never got up.
52:13Almost a month later, the news reached Walter's brother, Edward.
52:21When the word had come through, I remember his words.
52:25And all that went through his mind was, Walter is dead.
52:30My brother Walter is dead.
52:35Oh, Jesus.
52:36And, you know, I always remember him saying that.
52:49That was the worst moment of my life, when I knew my brother Walter was dead.
52:58The worst moment of my life.
53:00Yeah.
53:01Yeah.
53:02Yeah.
53:02I can imagine.
53:08In the midst of the battle, Walter's men risked their lives attempting to recover his body.
53:14But they were unsuccessful.
53:16And Walter became one of the many whose final resting place remains a muddy field on the Somme.
53:31This is the Faubourg Damien Memorial, dedicated to the servicemen whose bodies were never recovered.
53:36There are over 33,000 names on these walls, each with their own heartbreaking and heroic stories.
53:44But for me, Walter's story is my way of understanding the sacrifice of a generation.
54:02They say death doesn't discriminate.
54:05And here there is no black and white.
54:07Just a lost generation, all of whom should be remembered.
54:13But discrimination continued.
54:17When the war ended, there was a victory parade in London.
54:21Black soldiers were demobbed early and only a single battalion took part, hidden at the back of the parade.
54:30Three weeks after Walter's death, Walter's brother, Edward, received a letter from a second lieutenant, Picard.
54:38Allow me to say how popular he was throughout the battalion.
54:41He was brave and conscientious.
54:44He had been recommended for the military cross.
54:48And had certainly earned it.
54:51Walter's still waiting for his medal.
54:55According to the war office, the military cross was to be awarded to junior officers in recognition of gallantry and
55:02distinguished services in action.
55:07Lieutenant Tull's citation stated he had acted with gallantry and coolness in spite of heavy fire.
55:16And as I returned to England, I realised that there was one big question that remained unanswered.
55:24Should Tull have received that medal?
55:27Yep, in another time and another place, he would have received it.
55:31He should receive it.
55:32They realised this guy shouldn't be there.
55:35You know, and when these papers reached the desk of the civil servant in the war office for confirmation,
55:42he said, well, why is this guy an officer? He's black, you know?
55:46You have to be of pure European descent according to the manual of military law.
55:50Without official recognition, Walter's story was neglected, forgotten and gradually faded from British history.
55:58Somebody who was a hero in the First World War, because they happened to be black, nobody talks about them.
56:03The first black person to be commissioned in the British Army, surely this should be something and he should be
56:08somebody that everybody has heard of.
56:10It's as if black people and their contribution doesn't exist.
56:16Having followed in Walter's footsteps, I returned to my life in London, wondering if Walter was destined to remain a
56:23forgotten hero.
56:26But my journey didn't end at the war cemeteries in France.
56:29Since I started making this programme, I realised that actually, there's a huge interest in the story.
56:35Finally, Britain wants to know all about Walter Tull.
56:40There's now a growing campaign for Walter to be awarded a posthumous military cross, with over 51 MPs having signed
56:47an early day motion.
56:51The Football World too has now recognised his contribution to the game, with a memorial in Northampton and the main
56:57road to the stadium renamed in his honour.
57:03And back in Folkestone, in the very primary school Walter attended, the kids are finally learning about their famous ex
57:09-pupil.
57:10Oh, what a welcome!
57:12Put your hands up if you've heard of Walter.
57:14All three of you, right, we're off to a great start.
57:17What advice would you give to Walter if he was leaving the school?
57:22Just keep strong.
57:24To be strong and just kind of hold all that sadness in.
57:28Keep on going and prove that, like, that you're the best.
57:32To prove all people are equal?
57:34Yeah.
57:35Absolutely.
57:39Our history is largely the stories we tell our children.
57:43And unlike when I was growing up, at least now, some kids are being taught about a black British hero.
57:56Walter's story exposes some uncomfortable truths about British attitudes to race.
58:00But it's only by fully understanding the past that we can learn history's lessons.
58:05But I'll leave those arguments to the academics.
58:08For me, it's enough that we are now finally remembering Walter Tull.
58:20Peter Jackson's evocative account of the First World War, They Shall Not Grow Old, streaming now on BBC iPlayer.
58:27And tomorrow, the often overlooked brutal Italian campaign.
58:31Learning from the veterans Gary Lineker, My Grandad's War, on BBC Two at Nine.
58:38We'll be right back to the film.
58:39Bye.
58:39Bye.
58:43A couple of times were so true of this.
58:45Bye.
58:45Bye.
58:46Bye.
58:46Bye.
58:46Bye.
58:46Bye.