The subject of Black brothers who served together in the First World War is one that particularly interests us at Historycal Roots. Our book about the Walker Brothers documents the only example that has yet come to light of three brothers who served. We are sure there must be other examples but, for now, they remain hidden.
Today we have added a page to the ‘Forgotten History’ section of this site. It is about the Tull brothers: Walter (whose story is quite well documented); William; and Edward. The stories of William and Edward are less well known.
(William Tull, aged about 10)
William served in the Royal Engineers as a sapper. He died after the war but his final resting place in Folkestone is marked by a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone. He and Walter therefore both served. The new page sets out the known facts about William’s life. It is possible to piece together a reasonable picture of his time in the Folkestone area up to the 1911 census but, unfortunately, very little is known about his army service or how he came to die.
Edward did not undertake military service so far as we know and so, although there were three Tull brothers, only two of them enlisted.
There are other examples of two Black brothers: the Manleys (Norman, who lived to become Prime Minister of Jamaica and Roy who was killed in action); the Bemands (George Edward Kingsly and Harold Leslie, who were both killed in action); and the Vignales (Otho Rudolph and Ralph Ernest who have their own page in the ‘Forgotten History’ section of this site).
The Bemands are commemorated on the war memorial at Dulwich College in South London where they were schooled:
It is only in recent years that these stories have started to come to light thanks to the research of authors like Stephen Bourne and Ray Costello (whose ‘Black Tommies’ is a book we can highly recommend if you have an interest in this subject).
We don’t doubt that there are many more stories waiting to be uncovered and would love to hear from anyone with a story to tell.