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 lea ...

who played as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

. Born in

Stockton-on-Tees Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in County Durham, England, with a population of 84,815 at the 2021 UK census. It gives its name to and is the largest settlement in the wider Borough of Stockton-on-Tees. It is part of Teesside and the Tees Val ...

, Tranter played as a

for Thames Ironworks, the team that would later become

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

. 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 Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Roche ...

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 Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

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 Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

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 parishes in England, civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, north of York and south-east of Middlesbrough. On the south bank of the River Tees, Thornaby falls within th ...

. 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, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

left-winger Michael O'Grady. 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 List of places in London, town in east London, east London, England, located northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Havering, the town is one of the major Metropolitan centres of London, metropolitan centr ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

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

References

1874 births 1945 deaths Footballers from Stockton-on-Tees English men's footballers Men's 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