[1] Born in Stockton-on-Tees, Tranter played as a left-back for Thames Ironworks, the team that would later become West Ham United.
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 on 1 September 1900, and made a further three Southern League appearances for West Ham that season.
[citation needed] One of his great-grandchildren is Commonwealth Games Bronze medallist in swimming, Alyson Jones.
[citation needed] At the time of the 1911 census, Walter lived with his second wife Phoebe in Thornaby-on-Tees and worked in the shipyard as a "plater".