Walter Tull: Black footballer and war hero remembered at Cenotaph

At every stage of Walter Tull's life he had to overcome adversity and challenges

One of English football's first black players and the British Army's first ever black officer to command white troops has been celebrated as part of Armistice Day commemorations.

Actor Nicholas Bailey paid tribute to former Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Town player Walter Tull at the Cenotaph in London.

The 2nd Lt died in March 1918, during World War One.

Mr Bailey said he was "an exceptional human being".

Armistice Day commemorations took place across the country earlier, including at the Cenotaph where poppy wreaths were laid.

Actor Nicholas Bailey started researching Walter Tull's life in 1998

Mr Bailey, who is best known for playing Anthony Trueman in EastEnders, said a few words about Mr Tull before reading the John McCrae poem In Flanders Fields.

He told BBC Breakfast he had first come across Mr Tull's story in 1998 when "hardly anybody had heard of him", and had spent four years researching his life.

Walter Tull was cited for "gallantry and coolness" after leading a war time night raid with 26 men

His career at Spurs drifted due to the racial abuse he suffered

"He was an exceptional human being," Mr Bailey said. "A great man in any era and he deserves to be remembered."

Mr Bailey said it was an "incredible opportunity to speak a few words about Walter, for all the forgotten voices of the first world war, and for groups that are not normally celebrated.

"Walter really is a figurehead for that."

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Mr Tull, who was an orphan, overcame racial abuse to become the first black outfield player to feature in the English top flight.

He played for Tottenham for two years before moving to Northampton Town, where he made more than 100 appearances.

Walter Tull's mother and father died just two years apart

He enlisted in the Army in 1914, rose to become a 2nd Lt and died in the second Battle of the Somme at the age of 29.

As the first black officer to command white troops he assumed a position that he was legally not permitted to hold at the time.

Mr Bailey said he was a "real figure of distinction in terms of diversity and inclusion, and triumph over adversity".

Last month he was posthumously inducted into the National Football Museum's Hall of Fame.