Tribute to Brian Carter

RIP Brian Carter - 17th Nov 1938 – 21st July 2019

Everyone at the Bristol Rovers Former Players Association was saddened to hear of the death of Brian Carter, who passed away aged 80 on 21st July.

Brian Carter

We would like to extend our condolences to Brian’s family and friends on their loss and by way of our own tribute, publish this brief resume of his footballing career.

Brian was born in Weymouth on 17th November 1938, and played for the Grammar School before joining his local club in June 1955, turning professional a few months later in November.

He was soon spotted by Portsmouth who paid £2,500 in January 1956 to take him to Fratton Park. Brian played 45 games for Pompey before Rovers paid £1,500 in the summer of 1961 to bring him over to Eastville. He had played against some of his new team mates before, having been a member of the Pompey side defeated 5-4 by Rovers at Fratton Park in February 1960.

However, Rovers lost all four League games in which the right half appeared, and Brian moved down the A4 to Bath City in March 1962.

Brian played 242 games for the Romans and scored the first of his seven goals in their 2-1 defeat against Romford in September 1964. Highlights of his time at Twerton Park included second and third place finishes in the Southern League Premier, and reaching the third Round of the FA Cup in 1964, their joint furthest ever journey in the oldest association football competition in the world.

Thereafter a peripatetic existence took him around the Somerset and Wiltshire non-league circuit, encompassing:

16.5.67 Bridgwater Town;
6.7.68 Trowbridge Town (trial);
15.5.69 Welton Rovers (player/manager);
17.8.70 Bridgwater Town;
27.2.71 Shepton Mallet;
13.5.72 Avon Bradford (player/manager);
14.7.76 Melksham Town;

Despite a hiatus caused by damaging a knee on holiday in Corfu, Brian recovered from surgery to sign for Clandown in July 1977.

By then living in Bradford-on-Avon, he worked for 40 years as a partner in a company of quarry produce merchants with headquarters in Bristol and the Mendips.

In recent years, and suffering from dementia, Brian lived at Gracewell Care Home in Weymouth, before sadly passing away.