Bill Hern certainly gets around, this week he was ‘in’ Brighton – not literally of course, Bill is a law abiding citizen! He spoke to Russell Guiver and David Townsend who run the Brighton Rock blog. Funnily enough Russell and David are Brighton fans. Brighton Rock has been described as “Probably the best podcast you will hear concerning Brighton fc. Very insightful, hosted by a presenter who is passionate about our club.”
It didn’t take long for the conversation to get round to a discussion of Brighton’s first black player and it soon became evident that Dave Busby (for it was he) had slipped under the radar of both Russell and David. This is precisely why we felt it was important to write ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’ now before the contributions of players like Dave are completely lost to history.
You can listen to their wide-ranging discussion here:
Just got back from a couple of hours in Barbados (Zoom is a wonderful thing!) where I attended an event hosted by the museum in Bridgetown. On this Remembrance Day (11th November) it is fitting to remember Walter Tull, who lost his life in World War One. As you may know, Walter’s father was born in Barbados.
They hope that, Covid permitting, they will be able to make the exhibition a physical entity at some point during 2021. But, for now, why not take a virtual tour of the exhibits?
As part of Black History Month celebrations, the Post Office have painted four of their post boxes in the UK black. Each one celebrates the contribution of a black person to British society. We can debate whether this is tokenism of the worst sort (four? In the whole of the UK?) or whether we should accept that even a token gesture is better than nothing. We can also debate whether the ‘right’ four people have been chosen to represent the contribution black people have been making in Britain for centuries. But let’s leave those questions aside for now and express our pleasure that one of ‘Football’s Back Pioneers’ is among the chosen four.
Walter Tull was the first black player at Tottenham Hotspur (his career there spanned the years 1909 to 1911) and Northampton Town (1911 to 1914) and, according to the press release that accompanied the story, he was also Glasgow Rangers’ first black player. As far as we know Walter never played a competitive game for Rangers but at least one source states that he signed for them in February 1917 whilst in Scotland on his officer training course with the intention of playing for them after the war. Regardless of his status as a Rangers player, what is beyond doubt is that Walter was an important figure not just as a footballer but also as a soldier.
Walter served in the Army from 1914 until his death in France in 1918. He was promoted to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant at a time when Army Regulations specifically excluded anyone with non-white heritage from holding an officer rank (Walter’s grandfather had been an enslaved man on Barbados). The powers that be had a range of excuses for discriminating against soldiers of black or mixed heritage, one was that white troops would object to being led by a black officer. It’s surely worth mentioning that a number of the men Walter commanded risked their lives trying to retrieve his body from no-man’s land where he fell. His body never was recovered and so he has no known final resting place, but he is commemorated on the war memorial at Arras, one of 34,785 men remembered there who have no known grave. He is also named on the memorial in his home town of Folkestone and on the one in nearby Dover. At Northampton Town’s ground his memory is honoured with the words:
“Through his actions, W. D. J. Tull ridiculed the barriers of ignorance that tried to deny people of colour equality with their contemporaries. His life stands testament to a determination to confront those people and those obstacles that sought to diminish him and the world in which he lived. It reveals a man, though rendered breathless in his prime, whose strong heart still beats loudly”
Walter Tull deserves to be remembered and we are glad that ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’ is playing a small part in that.
The contribution made by black men and women to all aspects of British life is often not given the prominence it deserves. Whether it has been in helping establish the NHS, or running our transport and postal services (and many more besides), Britain wouldn’t be the country it is today without the input of unsung black heroes and heroines working alongside their white colleagues.
‘Football’s Black Pioneers’ will remember the first black player to represent each of the EFL (English Football League) and Premier League clubs. We will remember their contribution on the football field.
But several also served in the military.
As today is Armed Forces Day, we pay particular tribute to Walter Tull, the best known of our pioneering footballers to fight for his country.
In addition to being the first black player to represent Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Town, Walter served in the Army and rose to the rank of Lieutenant. He was killed in action in France on 25th March 1918.
Walter wasn’t the only footballing pioneer to don a uniform. Tommy Best (Cardiff and Queens Park Rangers), Tony Collins (Crystal Palace, Norwich and Watford), Roy Brown (Stoke City) and Albert Payne (Tranmere Rovers) were among those who served during World War Two.
