Sunday March 25th is the 100th anniversary of the death of former Northampton Town player Walter Tull, who was killed on the battlefield in France.
Recently, Chairman Kelvin Thomas and manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink joined war historian Jon Cooksey, BBC Radio Northampton's Graham McKechnie and the BBC TV Football Focus team in heading out to Northern France to visit the field where Tull was killed and various other sites as the club paid tribute to Tull and his colleagues.
Coming up on Saturday March 24th, Northampton Borough Council are holding a Centenary Memorial Service at the Guildhall with a 1pm start. On Sunday March 25th, a Walter Tull Commemorative Service will be held at All Saints Church in Northampton at 5pm, lasting for just under an hour. All Northampton Town supporters are invited to attend Sunday's service wearing club colours.
The focus of the club’s own commemorations will be the Charlton Athletic game on Good Friday. At 2pm at the Walter Tull Memorial, chaplain Haydon Spenceley will conduct a short service while the big screen will play a pre-match tribute to Walter at around 2.50pm. There will also be a special edition of the match programme on Good Friday. We will also mark the occasion with a period of silence in memory of Walter just before kick off.
Before then, all this week, here on ntfc.co.uk and across our social media channels, we will be producing some very special content as we pay tribute to Walter, his legacy and his memory......
While in France paying tribute to Tull, we also took the opportunity to remember Fred Lessons.
Lessons was killed in September 1918, just before the war ended, and was a former Northampton Town player and manager.
In fact, Lessons is still tenth in the club's all time goalscoring list, and his grave is in the Eterpigny Cemetery in Nothern France, not far from where Tull was killed and close to Arras, where Tull himself is remembered.
Kelvin Thomas and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink both laid a wreath and paid their respects to a very brave man and a true Cobblers Great.
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