A short wreath laying ceremony will be held at the Walter Tull Memorial on Saturday at Northampton's Sixfields Stadium at 1:45pm. The memorial is on the south side of the stadium. Attending will be Mr David Cardoza (Northampton Town FC's Chairman), Tony Clarke MP (local MP and a Director of the club), and representatives of Northampton Town FC's Supporters Trust.
All supporters of the Cobblers and Barnsley are warmly invited to attend. After the prayer and Last Post, the Chairman Mr Cardoza and others will lay wreaths.
The Walter Tull Memorial was unveiled in July 1999. The Memorial acts as a permanent reminder to the remarkable Walter Tull, who was killed in action during the First World War. Tull was the first black outfield player in the Football League and the first black officer in the British Army.
He made 110 appearances for Northampton Town from 1911 to 1914 after a period with Spurs. Playing at wing-half, Walter became the club's most popular player. Other clubs wanted to sign Walter and in 1914 Glasgow Rangers began negotiations with Northampton Town. However, before he could play for them war was declared.
On 25th March, 1918, 2nd Lieutenant Tull was ordered to lead his men on an attack on the German trenches during the second battle of the Somme. Soon after entering No Mans Land Tull was hit by a German bullet.
Tull was such a popular officer that several of his men made valiant efforts under heavy fire from German machine-guns to bring him back to the British trenches. These efforts were in vain as Walter Tull had died soon after being hit.
Walter Tull is one of the nominees on the 100 Great Black Britons website.
See
http://www.100greatblackbritons.com/bios/walter_tull.html
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/ntfc/tull.htm