Richard Hawley

You footie fellows, sign this! Not much up for imperialist awards but this would be just for the man. x

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/41209

Done

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now,then!

Taa. He played for Spurs and was brought up in an orphanage in Bethnal Green. He was Britain's first outfield black player at a professional level, died in the First World War and was never awarded a bravery medal because he was black. He was an extraordinary character who battled poverty and racism to get to the top of his game and, whilst I don't go much for these medals – we have medals for two of my great grandfathers from the first world war and my nanna always told the tale of her mother keeping the medal in a drawer. She had lost the love of her life, the father of her seven children. How could a piece of metal ever compensate her for that – I still think this would mean a lot to his family and for the history of black sportspeople in this country.

And Dickster, Gil Scott Heron's father was the first black footballer to play for Celtic. In-the-kitchen-at-parties Fact no 107 but interesting nonetheless. x

done.

i haven't a great passion for football, but my (ex)father in law was awarded the d.s.o. and though he was a tory, he was no racist.

he'd sign this if he were still here, so i'll sign it for Bill.

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bring back the free trade hall

Signed.

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http://www.nickbarberphotography.co.uk

Always a weird one why they never gave him recognition they built a statue to Randolph Turpin in Warwick so why not Walter Tull?did you ever see the drama they did about him,made me weep but made me howling at the moon angry too

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now,then!

Yes, I did see it. My son came home with a book about him too, written from a kids perspective, like an annual. Really good it was.

It's something that I can sort of understand because both my dad's grandfathers were killed in the First World War – his mother and his father grew up without their dads and had no memories of them. I took my dad to Ypres last year with my kids to find his granddad's name on the Menin Gate – I don't know if you've ever seen it, it's a huge white stone monument to those missing in action, with tiny names carved all over it that stretch from floor to ceiling. My kids were wide-eyed, that each of these tiny names represented a life and someone loved.

We eventually found it and I took a photo of my dad with my boys at the spot. And you can see the tears in his eyes in the picture, sad for the man lost but more sad I think because of the effect it had on his parents, having lost their dad, and how it reverberated through the generations.

So, for Walter's Tull's family, I think it must be a massive deal to get recognition for him. I know it would mean such a lot to my dad, if he were in their shoes. I don't know why they have made such a fight of it for them – they should just right the wrong and make his family happy. x

I totally agree they such bastards sometimes,I lost family at passiondale and at the Somme every time I think of WW1 I just well up such needless waste I read Wilfred Owen often amongst others

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now,then!

I wouldn't normally sign a petition like this,but i think there is more to this than just rewarding being a good soldier by giving them a badge on a bit of ribbon.......signed.

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I'd rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by faith.

I think the shocking thing about WWI is the scale of it, the age of them, the unfairness of it. My dad has a newspaper cutting, offering farm labourers subsidised rents and ten shillings to their wives if they signed up to fight. His family, from both sides, were rural, dirt poor and an offer of money, however inconsequential, to support your wife and kids must've seemed quite attractive. It was so wrong in so many ways, so unjust.

My nanna died a month ago, and she would've been 99 last Friday. She never knew her dad and her mum, struggling to bring up seven kids on her own, remarried and had another two. There was loads of difference made between them, those whose dad was living and those whose dad was dead. And the bitterness shaped her as a human being and she lived her life with an element of harshness that, though we all loved her, was hard sometimes.

These things echo down the generations, behaviour learnt from parents, experiences moulding the young. And I'm with you Dickster, I normally wouldn't bother with this kind of thing but there is an injustice here that could be righted and it would mean nothing to any of the gang of shite in government but might do a bit of good in some family, somewhere. x

My mum's dad fought in WW1 and apparently he never spoke a word about it. She said the only time she ever saw him cry was when he heard the radio announcement that we were at war with Germany. He shook his head and left the room saying "they have no idea what they are doing". We don't know what he went through but it left deep scars that were evident to all who knew him.
Signed.

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up the Owls

Signed. Everyone should sign this - such an injustice must be put right now!
My Grandad had his leg blown off at the Somme and he never, ever talked about it either Lou, held it all stoically inside, raised 10 children and died of a broken heart shortly after my lovely Gran died. As they say, they don't make 'em like that anymore.

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people will forget what you said, forget what you did, but they will never forget the way you made them feel