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Form is temporary, class is permanent... Tull was not merely the first British-born black army officer. He also marked football, as Britain`s first black professional outfield player. (Arthur Wharton, a goalkeeper with Preston, had been the first black pro.) He was born in Folkestone in 1888, the grandson of a slave, and son of a Barbadian carpenter and a white English mother. His mother died when he was seven, his father two years later. Walter and his brother Edward were sent to a Methodist orphanage in Bethnal Green, London. Edward left the orphanage after two years, adopted by a Scottish family, leaving Walter to spend time playing football. Walter graduated from the orphanage team to local Clapton FC, and from there to Tottenham Hotspur. A rare surviving reference to Tull`s football career appeared in the Football Star newspaper in 1909. Reporting a Bristol City vs Spurs match, the paper said that "a section of the spectators made a cowardly attack on him in language lower than Billingsgate [London`s fish market]". The writer continued: "Let me tell those Bristol hooligans that Tull is so clean in mind and method as to be a model for all white men who play football..... In point of ability, if not actual achievement, Tull was the best forward on the field." The season after the abuse, Tull dropped to Northampton Town, for what was described as "a heavy transfer fee". He would play out his career - over 100 matches - in Northampton`s midfield. Just before he could join Glasgow Rangers, war broke out. Enlisting almost immediately, he sailed for France in November 1915. He fought in several battles, including the first Battle of the Somme from its first day. The British army then had a regulation against "any negro or person of colour" becoming an officer. Nonetheless, remarkably, Tull was made one. "An officer and a gentleman, every inch of him," said one obituary. He was recommended for a Military Cross but never received it. Extract from Simon Kuper`s article for channel 4 news.