New research may have uncovered the burial site of an extra-ordinary Kent-born man, after his body was thought lost in The Somme.

Walter Tull, born in Folkestone in 1888, came to be the first black officer in the British army and was also a top flight footballer.

Before serving in The Great War, the son of a Barbadian carpenter played inside forward and half back for Clapton, Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Town.

Being only the third top flight player of mixed descent, he won numerous winner medals in the FA Amateur Cup.

Mr Tull served as a second lieutenant in the First World War, proving himself at a time when non-Europeans were barred from officer positions.

He died at the age of 29 while leading an attack on the Western Front during the second Battle of the Somme on March 25, 1918.

Despite the best efforts of his men, his body couldn't be recovered from the battlefield.

Now, military historian Andy Robertshaw points to unmarked graves at Heninel-Croisilles Road Cemetery in northern France where Mr Tull may have been buried.

Mr Robertshaw - who has advised on films including 1917 and War Horse - cross-referenced the War Graves Commission’s work and the regimental war diaries.

Contrary to previous thought, the historian believes Mr Tull's body was buried and not left on the battlefield.

The unmarked graves cannot be exhumed however, so a memorial at the nearby Faubourg d’Amiens Cemetery in Arras - where Mr Tull is remembered on the Memorial Wall along with 35,000 fallen comrades whose bodies were never recovered - may remain his only headstone.

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