Albert Potter joined the 8th Devons as a sixteen-year-old in the Great War and, after being wounded in France in 1915, he later served in Mesopotamia at the relief of Kut in 1916. Arriving back in Devon in May 1919 he appeared in local football ahead of making his Exeter City debut in April 1924. He later played for Wigan Borough and Colwyn Bay before moving back to live in Exeter.  .

Serving as an Air Raid Warden during the Exeter Blitz on the night of 3/4 May 1942 he was on duty close to his home in Shakespeare Road (off Burnthouse Lane) when he was hit as he helped with the birth of a baby. He died from his injuries in the Royal Devon and Exeter aged forty-four. 

Buried at All Saints Whipton, his air raid warden colleagues provided an inscribed memorial with the dedication “In remembrance of a gallant warden”. Commemorating the 75th anniversary of his death in 2017, and with his grave overgrown, the  Exeter City Supporters Trust History Group worked to renovate his grave and also held a remembrance service attended by Jordan Moore-Taylor - City’s Exeter-born captain at the time - and the Lord Mayor of Exeter. Albert’s daughter Pam, aged seven at the time of his death, spoke of how his family remains proud of their link with the club.   

Albert Potter is also honoured on the Second World War Memorial in the Garden of Remembrance at St James Park.

For more about Albert’s playing career see his entry in the A to Z of first-team players section of the archive where there are also a number of photographs.