Walter Whittaker (20 September 1878 – 2 June 1917) was an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

who played 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 ...

for

Newton Heath Newton Heath is an area of Manchester, England, north-east of Manchester city centre and with a population of 9,883. Historically part of Lancashire, Newton was formerly a farming area, but adopted the factory system following the Industrial Re ...

, Grimsby Town, Blackburn Rovers, Derby County,

Clapton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a profess ...

and Swansea Town.

Playing career

Whittaker began his career with

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side Molyneaux. He had a short spell with Buxton, but returned to Molyneaux before joining

in February 1896 as a replacement for William Douglas, who had transferred to Derby County. Whittaker was one of four goalkeepers Newton Heath tried following Douglas' departure (including their regular left-half Walter Cartwright), but the team lost all three matches Whittaker appeared in; he was transferred to Fairfield at the end of the season. After a season away, Whittaker returned to the

with

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 ...

side Grimsby Town in May 1897, playing in all but two of the club's matches in the 1897–98 season. In May 1898, Whittaker transferred to Southern League club

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, where he played for almost two seasons before returning to The Football League with Blackburn Rovers in February 1900. After just over 50 league appearances for Blackburn, Whittaker rejoined Grimsby Town – newly promoted to the First Division – in December 1901. The club narrowly avoided relegation at the end of the 1901–02 season, but they were unable to repeat the feat in

1902–03 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

, and at the end of the season, after 47 more appearances for Grimsby, Whittaker transferred to Derby County to remain a First Division player. Whittaker was predominantly Derby's second-choice goalkeeper in

1903–04 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

, making just 12 league appearances out of a potential 34, before returning to the Southern League with

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

in May 1904. After two years with Brentford, he moved back to Reading for a season, before returning to the Football League again in 1907 with Second Division side

. After making 90 Football League and six

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appearances in three years with the

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side, he made a final return to the Southern League First Division with Exeter City in July 1910.

Management career

In July 1912, Whittaker was appointed as the first manager of Swansea Town and spent two years with the newly elected Southern League Second Division club in a

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 ...

capacity. In his first season with Swansea, he won the

Welsh Cup The FAW Welsh Cup ( cy, Cwpan Cymdeithas Pêl-droed Cymru), currently known as the JD Welsh Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out football competition contested annually by teams in the Welsh football league system. It is considered the most ...

and guided the team to third place in the league. After leaving Swansea, he took over as player-manager at nearby

Llanelly Llanelly ( cy, Llanelli) is the name of a parish and coterminous community in the principal area of Monmouthshire, within the historic boundaries of Brecknockshire, south-east Wales. It roughly covers the area of the Clydach Gorge. The popula ...

, but his time there was cut short by the outbreak of 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 ...

Personal life

Whittaker died of pneumonia in 1917 at the age of 38.

Honours

As a manager

Swansea Town *

: 1912–13

References

* * *

External links

Profile
at StretfordEnd.co.uk

at MUFCInfo.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Whittaker, Walter 1878 births 1917 deaths English men's footballers Manchester United F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Reading F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Derby County F.C. players Exeter City F.C. players Swansea City A.F.C. players Swansea City A.F.C. managers Buxton F.C. players Fairfield Athletic F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players Llanelli Town A.F.C. players English Football League players Southern Football League players Southern Football League managers Deaths from pneumonia in Wales Footballers from Manchester Men's association football goalkeepers English football managers