William Carter was a member of the Brighton-based Vernon Athletic club and assisted the Albion as an amateur during the two seasons before the Great War. He made the first team on just one occasion, at centre-half – in the absence of David Parkes in a home defeat by Newport County in the Southern Alliance, but had been a centre-forward with Vernon and was a key figure in their team which carried off the championship of the West Sussex Senior League and the Royal Irish Rifles Charity Cup in 1911-12.
William returned to the Goldstone after the war to assist the reserves briefly during the 1919-20 season.