Stanley Hanson (27 December 1915 – 24 November 1987) was an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played for

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 ...

for his whole professional career.

Career

Starting off as an amateur with

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

and Southport he turned down

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

to sign professional forms for Bolton in October 1935.Ponting, Ivan & Hugman, Barry; ''The Concise Post War History of Bolton Wanderers''; 1994, p.11. He did not make the goalkeepers shirt his own until the 1938–39 season and then his career was interrupted by the

Second World War 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 ...

. He returned to top-flight football and stayed playing with Bolton until he was nearly 40. He was Bolton's keeper in the '' Matthews' Cup Final''. When he retired from football he stayed with the club as coach of the reserve side as well as running the post office near Burnden Park.

Personal life

Hanson was of Norwegian descent and had a brother, Alf, who also played for Liverpool as well as Chelsea. He served in the

53rd (Bolton) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery 53rd (Bolton) Field Regiment was a Royal Artillery (RA) unit of Britain's part-time Territorial Army (United Kingdom), Territorial Army (TA) during World War II. It was descended from the Bolton Artillery, first formed in the Lancashire town of B ...

, during the Second World War.

Career

Personal life

References

Further reading