Having a Welsh mother, George Carter’s first sporting love as a young man in Hereford was rugby, but in 1882 he was persuaded to play in a trial match with association football rules. Forty years later he told the Football Echo what happened next. “I was asked to play in the centre-half position and I apparently made something of a show for I was asked to join a club known as Nil Desperandum composed mainly of working men.

My first match was rather a farce for I broke my collar bone and was unable to play for six weeks”. That it seems did not put him off as he went on to represent Herefordshire and when he transferred from the Ordnance Survey’s Hereford office to its national headquarters in Southampton, it seems that not only his engraving skills were at stake. His sporting prowess (he had additionally also represented his county at cricket) had reputedly come to the attention of the Survey’s top brass, notably its Medical Officer, Dr. Russell Bencraft, a committee man, of considerable influence, at St Mary’s. The story goes that the new arrival was asked by Ned Bromley, the Saints’ captain,

“Where do you play, as a rule, Mr. Carter?” “Full-back”, said George, who thereupon became a regular in that position for the next six years.

An ever-present in the side that won the Hants Junior Cup in his first season, he then succeeded Bromley as captain and led the side, in successive seasons, to two more Junior Cups, followed by two Senior Cups.

In the last of those seasons, 1891-92, he captained the team in their first-ever FA Cup-tie, a 4-1 win at Warmley. He remained virtually ever-present until December 1893, when he sustained a leg injury that obliged him to retire at the end of the season (see scrapbook section).

This meant that a stalwart of an era of plentiful Cup football, who had a fistful of medals – plus a commemorative gold watch from the club – to show for it, missed the Saints’ introduction to Southern League football in 1894. George had remained an amateur, preferring to combine a sporting career with his professional role at the Ordnance Survey. He still had a part to play at The Dell, though. In 1901, he assumed responsibility for the Reserves and so helped to bring on the likes of Fred Harrison, Frank Jefferis, and Arthur Dominy. When he stepped down in 1915, he was made a life-member of Southampton Football Club. He continued to work at the OS, from which he retired in 1926 on his 60th birthday. He died in 1945 in tragic circumstances, living with his son in Southview Rd he had fallen onto an electric fire in his bedroom and received extensive burns from which he died later the same day, in hospital.

His original red sash (see scrapbook section) is on display in the ‘1885’ lounge at St Mary’s.