During the First World War, colonial African troops and those of the West India Regiments have been shown to have served under white officers nearer the apex of the command chain, with black non-commissioned officers occupying other positions. Although British-born Black servicemen raised in United Kingdom regiments seemed to have been in a similar position to their colonial cousins, it would appear that during the First World War some very small inroads were being made into the commissioning of officers of African descent, intended or otherwise. Moreover, those officers, though few in number, would be leading European troops.

In recent years, Second Lieutenant Walter Tull has often been credited as the first black officer in the British Army. Daniel Tull, his father, was the son of a black slave in Barbados. In 1876, Daniel came to Folkestone and married Alice Palmer, a local white woman. Walter was one of six children, but was left an orphan at the age of ten when his parents died within two years of each other. His mother died in 1895 and was soon followed by his father, who had already remarried, with Alice's cousin Clara. When he had first arrived in the United Kingdom, Daniel had joined the local Methodist church, which now came to the relief of his struggling widow by arranging for a Methodist orphanage in London's Bethnal Green to take care of the boys.

Having served an apprenticeship as a printer after leaving school, Walter's passion for football led to him being spotted by a talent scout for Tottenham Hotspur while playing in Clapton in 1908. His initial experiences were not good. In 1909 Bristol City fans jeered and cat-called Tottenham's first black outfielder to the extent that both Walter and his team were traumatised for the remainder of the season. He never got fully into the rest of the season and was sold the following year to Northampton Town, where he became a firm favourite. Walter played over a hundred times for the first team, who recognised the young player's star quality.

At the outbreak of the war, instead of taking an opportunity to sign for Glasgow Rangers, Walter joined the 17th (1st Football) Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, commanded by Major Frank Buckley, a Boer War veteran and an ex-Manchester United and Aston Villa player who later became famous as the stern disciplinarian manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers.