However, Wilton was not a Glasgow boy. He was born in Largs, the son of a stonemason, born on Arran, who died in 1873, his Paisley-born wife then moving with the family to Glasgow.  At fifteen in 1881 William was an Office Boy at a Sugar Broker living in Kinning Park. In 1891, living with his brother in Tradeston, he was a Mercantile Clerk so Rangers, with its ground at Kinning Park itself was the local club, which he joined at seventeen in 1883. There he soon became secretary i.e. off-field organiser, to the reserve and youth teams, no doubt bringing in much-needed young talent, was on the the committee that oversaw the transfer in 1887 from Kinning to the first Ibrox, was appointed First team Match Secretary in 1889, when the club moved to the current Ibrox, and Treasurer in 1891. 

It meant that, as in 1890 the club became one of the founders of the Scottish League the club's performance off- and on-the-field had much improved so much so that Rangers in 1891 shared that first League Championship. Moreover, it would continue to win a string of league championships, Scottish Cups and other trophies over the next decade and a half and more, this as in 1899 the club became a Limited Company and he its Company Secretary. In the meantime in 1893 and back in Largs he had married Catherine Houston. They were to have two daughters, living first in Scotstoun north of the river and then back south in Dumbreck.