Charlie Dexter set out on a professional football career in April 1911 when he joined Sheffield Wednesday from Ilkeston Town at the age of 21, but he had little chance of breaking into Wednesday’s star-studded First Division side and was confined to the reserves until he was freed to join Portsmouth in the Southern League during the close season of 1912.
Acting as deputy to the renowned amateur international left back Arthur Knight, Charlie made the Southern League team on just fourteen occasions at Fratton Park before moving along the South Coast to join the Albion in April 1914.
Charlie’s career blossomed at the Goldstone and he was first choice left back in 1914-15, but the season was dominated by the First World War. After enlisting along with the majority of his Albion colleagues with the Footballers’ Battalion, he returned to his Midlands home when the club closed down in 1915, but sadly lost his life the following year while serving with the Warwickshire Regiment.