Earlier this year, a friendly match was held at a stadium in Glasgow, England, in honor of a footballer who passed away 100 years ago.
43,000 spectators attended the friendly match between Tottenham Hotspur and Rangers. A footballer who passed away a century ago, Walter Tull.
Walter was born in 1888 in Folkestone, a rural area in England. His father was black and his mother was white. Walter was 9 years old when his parents died.
Walter and his brother Edward then ended up in an orphanage. His brother Edward was adopted by someone. A lonely Walter then started playing football with the orphans.
Walter’s football skills attracted local club Clapton FC. He also joined there from October 1908. His performances won the club the FA Cup. London football journal The Football Star named him as the player of the season.
A year after winning the FA Cup, the big club in England, Tottenham Hotspur, called him. As a forward, he started against Sutherland and Manchester United.
He played 10 games and scored 2 goals. This great football player had to face discrimination because he was black. The Games were held in Bristol in October 1909. There Walter faced discrimination.
The crowd booed him repeatedly, using profanity,” wrote The Football Star. After that incident, Tottenham added him to their spares list.
It is not yet clear whether Tottenham’s decision was deliberate or whether the club was wary of any unsafe crowd activity. Whatever the reason, for 2 years Walter was only listed as an extra. Walter did not take to the field until Northampton Town brought him in in 1911.
Walter was brought into the club by Northampton Town manager Herbert Chapman. He played more than 100 games for the club before the start of the First World War. His playing career was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.
In December 1914, he was inducted into the 17th Battalion of the British Army. It was also called the Footballer’s Battalion. By 1915, 200 professional footballers had joined the battalion.
In 1915, Walter arrived in France. By the end of 1916 he had fought in the Battle of the Somme. One million soldiers died in the war that lasted for four months.
420,000 British soldiers were wounded and 125,000 soldiers received aid. Walter survived that battle but was seriously wounded and returned to Britain. Senior officers were very impressed with Walter, not only on the football field but also on the battlefield.
After some rest, the injured Walter was sent to the Officer Training Center in Scotland. Its regulations were revoked for Walter. It was written in the regulation, “Black citizens will not be given responsibility for military training.”
Bowing to Walter’s ability, that army regulation itself was abolished. While Walter was in Scotland he was signed by Rangers to play for the club after the war.
In May 1917, Walter became a second lieutenant. In 1918 he went to fight in Italy. Leading 26 people, he reached the Pieve River. He not only defeated the enemy there but also brought back a group of 26 people safely.
After returning from there, he mocked the army council. “White officers do not obey the instructions of blacks. The consequences of misdirecting and misdirecting are before you,” Walter’s biographer Phil Vasil said of his expression.
In 1918, Walter led the 23rd Battalion into northern France. Before sunrise, the German army attacked the British army there. During five hours, 6600 rounds of fire were fired and 350,000 units of explosives were detonated. 418,000 British soldiers were wounded in that battle.
Walter was also among the injured. Walter was killed in March 1918. Former Leicester goalkeeper Tom Wilgam tried to save Walter during the clash but failed.
Walter’s body was not found when the search was over. A memorial to the first black player in the British football team and the first black officer in the British Army is in Arras Memorial Park after his body was never found.
34 thousand 794 people were buried there. Major Poole, the battalion commander in which Walter belonged, recommended him for the Military Cross.
Walter never received that title. Wasil says that he was not given the title because the British Army did not want to acknowledge Walter’s contribution.
According to Wasil, he found a note in which it was written – no more black people will be recruited in the white team. Walter’s biographer Vasil has the experience of being the last example of discrimination faced by a warrior who contributed to the nation.
A warrior’s contribution was ridiculed because of arrogance. The British Army failed to honor the contribution at the time.
“That is the last example of the extreme model of racism,” he wrote. In 1999, a garden was created next to Northampton Stadium in Walter’s memory.
Nearby pubs are also named after him. Walter was inducted into the National Football Museum in 2021. His great-grandson Edward Finlayson was present at the ceremony.
Edward is a defender for England and Tottenham. At the ceremony, Edward said, “He is a source of inspiration not only for me but for every black footballer.”
#Football #History #Walter
(Excerpt from Al Jazeera Television’s website on Tal.)
Amazing but sentimental story.