Wolves youngsters in barracks visit

Players at Wolves Academy have been studying the life of Walter Tull – a former footballer and the first black officer in the British Army, who lost his life during the Great War.

As part of their studies, the under-11 squad recently took part in an educational visit to the Staffordshire Regiment Museum near Lichfield to experience what life would have been like for soldiers, such as Tull, in the trenches.

The players discovered what clothes the soldiers wore and the weapons they used, as well as experiencing the horrors of the Western Front by touring the museum’s full-scale reconstruction of a First World War trench.

Tim Franks, education officer at Wolves Academy, said: “We wanted to give the lads a feel of what the First World War was like, so they could have more empathy and feeling for the subject.

“One of the most important things they learnt was how young many of the soldiers were, also how horrific life was on a day-to-day basis.

“It was not just the horrors of the battles, but of the terrible conditions in which they had to live and the awful danger they faced; from bullets, disease, bad weather, bad clothing and just being totally uncomfortable and miserable.”

After being orphaned as an eight-year-old in 1896, Walter Tull went on to become a professional football for Tottenham Hotspur, before making 111 appearances for Northampton Town.

But it was during the war where the leadership skills he developed on the pitch came to prominence, as Tull became the first infantry officer of black heritage in the British Army – despite the Manual of Military Law stating only men of ‘pure European descent’ could be officers.

He died on 25th March 1918 when he was just 29-years-old while leading an attack on the German trenches at Favreuil. Tull was struck by a bullet soon after entering ‘no man’s land’, but his body was never recovered.

Mr Franks added: “Walter Tull overcame all sorts of barriers; class, poverty, as well as his race. When we read his letters, he was highly literate and a very clever man. He was a remarkable example to our young people.”