William Smith joined Exeter City from Hyde United, his hometown club, in 1913 and made 66 Southern League appearances before joining the war effort in 1915. Having been a member of the team which toured Argentina and Brazil in 1914, he was forced to retire from football after losing a leg in the Great War.

He was signed from his local Lancashire Combination club, Hyde United in the summer of 1913.

He played his first game for the Grecians at Gillingham in October 1913 and was then ever present for the rest of the season and only missed one game the following season. He played in the South American tour of 1914

Smith joined up for the duration of the First World War, but such were his injuries that he had a leg amputated in a Liverpool hospital 1919. 

He married a girl who lived in Kendall's buildings in Blackboy Road when he came down for a visit after WW1.

Billy died in 1959.