William Baird Walker (5 May 1893 – after 1925) 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 le ...

who scored 53 goals in 188 appearances in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

playing for

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

Merthyr Town Merthyr Town Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Tref Merthyr) is a Welsh semi-professional association football, football club based in Merthyr Tydfil, currently playing in the , in the seventh tier of the English football league system. The ...

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

and

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

. Walker was born in

New Cumnock New Cumnock is a town in East Ayrshire, Scotland. It expanded during the coal-mining era from the late 18th century, and mining remained its key industry until its pits were shut in the 1960s. The town is southeast of Cumnock, and east of Ayr. ...

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...

. A

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

, he began his football career with New Cumnock and Lugar Boswell before coming to England to join

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

club and FA Cup-holders

in August 1911. He remained at the club for 18 months, playing only five league games in that time, before returning to Scotland in March 1913 suffering from homesickness. A few months later he ventured south again, signing for

of the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

. He scored on his debut in a 2–2 draw at

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

, and finished the 1913–14 season with eight goals from 12 league appearances. He played only rarely for the first team the following season, but scored six

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

s for the reserves. Walker returned to the club towards the end of the First World War, scoring 15 goals in 29 games in the last season of the wartime leagues, and kept his place at the beginning of the 1919–20 Football League season, moving on to

, newly elected to the Second Division, in November 1919. The following year he dropped down a division to join

, founder members of the inaugural season of the

Third Division South The Third Division South of The Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division North with clubs elected to the League or relegated from Division Two allocated to on ...

, for whom he scored 24 goals in 80 league games. From October 1922 Walker spent a year with

, scoring 8 goals in 39 appearances in all competitions, before finishing off his Football League career at

, where in what remained of the 1923–24 season he scored 5 goals in 19 games. He spent the 1924–25 season as

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

of Weymouth, whom he led to sixth place in the Southern League Western Division and runners-up spot in the Western League, and ended his playing career with

Leamington Town Leamington Football Club is a football club based in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England. They are currently members of and play at the New Windmill Ground near Bishop's Tachbrook. History The club was established in 1933 as the works ...

and Redditch Town.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Billy 1893 births Year of death missing Footballers from East Ayrshire Scottish footballers Men's association football forwards Bradford City A.F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players Merthyr Town F.C. players Bristol City F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Weymouth F.C. players Leamington F.C. players Redditch United F.C. players English Football League players Southern Football League players Scottish football managers Weymouth F.C. managers Place of death missing Lugar Boswell Thistle F.C. players People from New Cumnock