Walter Rogers Tranter (22 August 1874 – 14 July 1945) was an English

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 as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. Born in Stockton-on-Tees, Tranter played as a

for Thames Ironworks, the team that would later become

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

. The club handbook described him as a player that "rushes in where others feared to tread". He was a part of the team that won the London League during the 1897-98 season, and captained the side to the Southern League Second Division championship in 1898–99. He then left to play for Chatham, but returned to the newly renamed club, along with teammate Albert Kaye, for the 1900–01 season. He played in the inaugural game for the new club, a 7–0 battering of Gravesend on 1 September 1900, and made a further three Southern League appearances for West Ham that season. His last two games for the club were in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

Qualifying Round 4 against New Brompton, which went to a replay on 21 November 1900. In June 1901, he and Kaye joined Belfast club Distillery.

Personal life

Walter Tranter's father was Isaac Rogers Tranter, who was the Captain of the Fire Brigade Company in

Thornaby-on-Tees Thornaby-on-Tees, commonly referred to as Thornaby, is a town and civil parish on the River Tees's southern bank. It is in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, England. The parish had a population of 24,741 at the 2011 census, in t ...

. Walter married three times, having several children with his first two wives, both of whom predeceased him. One of his grandchildren is former

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

left-winger

Michael O'Grady Michael O'Grady (born 11 October 1942) is an English former professional footballer born in Leeds, who played two games for the England national team, scoring three goals.

. One of his great-grandchildren is Commonwealth Games Bronze medallist in swimming, Alyson Jones. At the time of the 1911 census, Walter lived with his second wife Phoebe in

and worked in the shipyard as a "plater". The household included two children from his first marriage to Hannah and three more from his second. Phoebe died in 1914 and Walter married Isabel Rowell in 1917. There were no more children. At some point they moved to

Romford Romford is a large town in east London and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Historically, Romfo ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

, Walter dying there in 1945, followed by Isabel in 1959.

References

1874 births 1945 deaths Footballers from Stockton-on-Tees Footballers from County Durham English footballers Association football fullbacks Thames Ironworks F.C. players Chatham Town F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players Lisburn Distillery F.C. players Southern Football League players {{England-footy-defender-1870s-stub