{"id":36961,"date":"2014-08-04T18:38:05","date_gmt":"2014-08-04T18:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=36961"},"modified":"2014-11-13T00:33:08","modified_gmt":"2014-11-13T00:33:08","slug":"walter-tull-descendants-to-honour-pioneering-black-footballer-who-was-also-a-hero-of-the-first-world-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=36961","title":{"rendered":"Walter Tull: Descendants to honour pioneering black footballer who was also a hero of the First World War"},"content":{"rendered":"

Walter Tull: Descendants to honour pioneering black footballer who was also a hero of the First World War<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Daily Mirror<\/a>
\n2014-01-19<\/p>\n

Ben Glaze<\/strong><\/a>, Reporter
\nThe Sunday Mirror<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nPioneer: Walter Tull in his Tottenham kit (Getty Images<\/em>)<\/small><\/p>\n

The orphaned grandson of slaves played for Tottenham Hotspur<\/a> and then became the first black man to hold a commission in the British infantry<\/em><\/p>\n

Like any other officer of the First World War<\/a> Walter Tull<\/a> cut a fine figure in his crisp khaki uniform. But he was different.<\/p>\n

Second Lieutenant Tull was a black man \u2013 the first to hold a commission in the British infantry.<\/p>\n

And in stark contrast to most of his fellow officers \u2013 from well-off families and public school-educated \u2013 he was working class. He was also an orphan.<\/p>\n

But with the determination that had already seen him play football for Tottenham Hotspur<\/a>, Walter won the respect and devotion of the men he led with such valour.<\/p>\n

This grandson of slaves was 29 when he was killed in action in 1918. He has no known grave. Perhaps through prejudice he was never awarded the gallantry medal he so richly deserved<\/a> and he seemed doomed to be forgotten.<\/p>\n

But now, as the centenary of the start of the Great War approaches, his descendants are to make an emotional pilgrimage to the Western Front to honour his memory.<\/p>\n

Great-niece Rita Humphrey, who has nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, said: \u201cWe tell the children about Walter and I hope the rest of the family will continue to tell them when I\u2019m gone, to let them know what a man he was.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nProud: Rita Humphrey, the great-niece of Walter Tull (Daily Mirror<\/em>)<\/p>\n

“I want them to know what\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make the trip to see the battlefields ourselves. It will be a fitting tribute…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Walter Tull: Descendants to honour pioneering black footballer who was also a hero of the First World War The Daily Mirror 2014-01-19 Ben Glaze, Reporter The Sunday Mirror Pioneer: Walter Tull in his Tottenham kit (Getty Images) The orphaned grandson of slaves played for Tottenham Hotspur and then became the first black man to hold […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,459,8,10],"tags":[17657,17662,17661,17658,17660,17659],"class_list":["post-36961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-history","category-media-archive","category-uk","tag-ben-glaze","tag-daily-mirror","tag-rita-humphrey","tag-the-daily-mirror","tag-walter-daniel-john-tull","tag-walter-tull"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}