William John Gray (5 March 1882 – 18 November 1916) was a Scottish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played at left half for Partick Thistle and

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

Football career

Gray was born in Inverness and began his youth career with local club

Inverness Thistle Inverness Thistle Football Club was a football club playing in the city of Inverness in northern Scotland. Formation and timeline They were members of the Highland Football League, winning the championship eight times, including its inaugur ...

. He started his professional career with Partick Thistle. After five years, he moved to

southern England Southern England, or the South of England, also known as the South, is an area of England consisting of its southernmost part, with cultural, economic and political differences from the Midlands and the North. Officially, the area includes ...

to join

of the Southern League to replace

Kelly Houlker Albert Edward "Kelly" Houlker (27 April 1872 – 27 May 1962) was an English footballer who played at left-half for Blackburn Rovers and England. Playing career Houlker was born in Blackburn and started his long playing career at Blackburn Horn ...

who had returned to

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

. Gray made his "Saints" debut in the opening match of the 1906–07 season and his form meant that he rarely missed a match until an injury sustained in a 5–1 defeat at

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

in March brought his season to a premature end, with James Bowden eventually replacing him. Apparently unhappy in the south of England, Gray returned to Scotland in the summer of 1907 to resume his career with Partick Thistle.

Personal life

Gray served as a

corporal Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non- ...

in the Seaforth Highlanders during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and died in

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on 18 November 1916. He is buried in Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Bill 1882 births Scottish men's footballers Men's association football wing halves Scottish Football League players Southern Football League players Partick Thistle F.C. players Southampton F.C. players Inverness Thistle F.C. players 1916 deaths British military personnel killed in World War I British Army personnel of World War I Seaforth Highlanders soldiers Footballers from Inverness Burials at the Abbeville Communal Cemetery