Alfred was born in Desborough about 1853, the third of six known children of Thomas Panter and Mary Wilson. Alfred was a signalman on the railway for most of his working life.

Alfred married Mary Ann Bindley in 1875. Mary Ann was born at Braybrook about 1855, the second known child of George and Elizabeth Bindley.

Alfred and Mary Ann had six children. Their younger son Alfred is known to have served in France in the Great War. Their daughter Gertrude's husband, William Murkitt, joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in November 1917 and died just a month later, in France, of broncho-pneumonia.