Goalkeeper Graham Lear, a trainee architect, played for Exeter City as an amateur during the early 1950s. He joined the club from local football and later played for Leytonstone. 

Playing for Clyst St George, and impressing in a friendly in September 1948, Graham was offered amateur arrangements with Exeter City during the 1948/49 season. Playing for the reserves, Graham made his first-team debut in place of Barney Singleton in the Boxing Day 1950 home game against Aldershot which City won 3-0. Keeping his place for the following game at Walsall, Graham also played in the home game against Torquay United on 4 April 1951. 

With Barney Singleton appearing in the first three league games of the following season, Graham came into the side for the fourth match of the campaign at Gillingham and retained the goalkeeper’s jersey for a run of seventeen games until the fixture at Brighton in early December 1951. 

Proving to be Graham’s final game for the club, he shortly took up the chance of working as an architect in London and continued to play in goal for Leytonstone. With City retaining Graham’s Football League registration, and with him soon to be called up for National Service, he later briefly attracted the attention of Chelsea. Continuing to work as an architect for many years, he died in Exeter on 13 June 2021.