Stanley Joseph Bentham (17 March 1915 – 29 May 2002) was an English footballer. Born at

Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Staf ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, in 1915, he had a trial with

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

club

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

as a teenager in the early 1930s but was not offered a professional contract and signed for non-league

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

instead. He played five times for the club in the 1933-34 season as they won the

Cheshire County League The Cheshire County League was a football league founded in the north west of England in 1919, drawing its teams largely from Cheshire, surrounding English counties and North Wales. Initially the league was dominated by the reserve teams of Footba ...

title, scoring three goals. He turned professional on 1 January 1935, still only aged 18, when First Division giants Everton signed him. He made his senior debut on 23 November 1935 in a league game against Grimsby Town at

Blundell Park Blundell Park is a football ground in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England and home to Grimsby Town Football Club. The stadium was built in 1899, but only one of the original stands remains. The current capacity of the ground is 9, ...

and was soon a regular first team player, missing just one league game in the 1938-39 season, but he was 23 years old when in September of that year

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

broke out and by the time league action resumed for the 1946-47 season, he was already 30 years old and had lost most of the prime years of his career. He remained with Everton as a player before retiring at the end of the 1947-48 season, by which time he had played 125 competitive games for the

Goodison Park Goodison Park is a football stadium in the Walton area of Liverpool, England. It has been the home stadium of Premier League club Everton F.C. since its completion in 1892. Located in a residential area 2 miles (3 km) north of Liverpool ...

club (110 of them in the league) and scored seven goals. He remained on the club's payroll as a coach until 1962, when he secured a similar position at Luton Town. This was his final job in football. By the late 1990s, Bentham was suffering from

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

and was living in a nursing home at Southport by the time of his death in May 2002 at the age of 87.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bentham, Stan 1915 births 2002 deaths Footballers from Leigh, Greater Manchester English men's footballers Everton F.C. players English Football League players Wigan Athletic F.C. players Men's association football wing halves Deaths from Alzheimer's disease