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 lea ...

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, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

playing for

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The club competes in , the third tier of English football, and is managed by Graham Alexander. The club was founded in 1903 and ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed The Sky Blues after the sky blue colou ...

, Merthyr Town,

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded in 1894, the club competed in the Southern League and Western L ...

and

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

. Walker was born in

New Cumnock New Cumnock is a village 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 village is southeast of Cumnock, and east of ...

Ayrshire Ayrshire (, ) is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county, in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. The lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Ayrshire and Arran covers the entirety ...

. A forward, 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 the top division of the Football League in England from 1888 until the end of the 1991–92 season, when its teams broke away to form the Premier League. From 1992 to 2004, the name First Division was g ...

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

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

, 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 Wick ...

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 The 1919– 20 season was the 28th season of The Football League, and the first season after football was suspended after outbreak of World War I Compared to 1914–15, the number of Football League member clubs increased from 40 to 44, initial ...

season, moving on to

, newly elected to the Second Division, in November 1919. The following year he dropped down a division to join Merthyr Town, founder members of the inaugural season of the Third Division South, 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. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

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 and Redditch Town.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Billy 1893 births Year of death missing Footballers from East Ayrshire Scottish men's 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