17th and 23rd Battalions of the Middlesex Regiment were formed during the First World War from a core of professional footballers. They became known as the Football Battalions. In 1914 the first to volunteer from Northampton Town was Walter Tull. He rose to the rank of lance sergeant and fought in the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

Tull was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 30 May 1917, he became one of the first mixed-heritage infantry officers in a regular British Army regiment. Walter Tull was killed in action during the First Battle of Bapaume, in France.

There are claims that he was nominated for a Military Cross but it was never awarded.

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