Walter Tull

At 21 I was a professional footballer playing for Tottenham Hotspur. By the time I was 26 my team were fighting for Britain with a Football Battalion. On 1 July 1916, on a new field of battle called the Somme, I witnessed the bloodiest day in the history of our Army. Trench fever sent me home in 1917, but I completed officer training, and in doing so broke the rules. Most people thought that white soldiers would not accept orders from men of colour, and that on no account should black officers serve on the front line.

On 25 March 1918 black officer Lieutenant Walter Tull was ordered to lead his men in an attack on German trenches, where he was caught by machine gun fire. His men made valiant efforts under heavy fire to bring his body back to safety. He has no known grave.