Alexander and Harold Hanton, who were in their 90th year, went within nine days of eachother. Alec, having suffered a fall at his West Brunswick home on Sunday, died of a heart attack at the John Fawkner Private Hospital in Moreland on September 5, while Harold, who suffered a major heart attack a fortnight ago, died at the Epworth Hospital yesterday.
“They were two wonderful men . . . both were incredibly giving,” said Mark Hanton, the son of Harold and nephew of Alec.
“My son summed my Dad up best when he said his Pa has been successful in life - that he successfully fought for and defended his country, successfully completed a university degree, successfully raised a family and successfully protected them.
Harold and Alec Hanton, wartime
“Uncle Alec treated all of us as though we were his children, and we were blessed to have him as a second father.
“It’s the end of an era, as their older brother, also named Harold, died in October last year at the age of 92. Let’s hope the Carlton boys can do it for them on Saturday.”
The identical twins were born at Frankston eighty-nine years ago, on May 5, 1922. Harold preceded Alec at birth by 20 minutes.
Back in April, in what would prove their final interview, the brothers reflected on their playing careers, which initially took in games for St David’s in the local West Brunswick Church football competition.
In August 1942, Alec and Harold enlisted for wartime duties in Western Australia, as signalmen for the Army’s B Australian Corps. Service would take them to Townsville, the tip of Cape York, back to Melbourne, and finally to Bougainville, before their discharge in 1946.
By then they’d participated in many a wartime scratch match with League luminaries - the likes of Les Foote, Eric “Tarzan” Glass, Denis Cordner and the great Laurie Nash.
Alec and Harold Hanton, 1948 Carlton reserve grade team
Alec related a terrific tale of the time he and Nash crossed paths on a football field, in Townsville of all places, when brotherly love intervened.
“We always struck a couple of senior players in every game we played,” Alec recalled. “We were stationed at Townsville, and Laurie Nash was coming down from New Guinea on his way back to Melbourne, and he wanted a game of football. Anyway we were playing for the army, I’m not sure who we were playing, and Nash offered to play for either team. But our captain knocked him back, so he played against us.
“I started on him at centre half-back and kept him down to three goals . . . in the first ten minutes! I was admiring him instead of trying to stop him, so Harold took over and Nash didn’t kick another goal.”
At war’s end, and having safely returned to Melbourne from Bougainville, the Hantons tried their luck at Carlton. This was the Perc Bentley era, when men of stature like Bob Chitty, Bert Deacon and Ken Hands were the pin-ups, and Princes Park was a welcome abode.
“It was a very happy place, particularly with the team so successful,” Alec remembered. “Sunday morning they’d have a beer-up and a get-together . . . it was a good atmosphere.”
The record books show that Harold Hanton - sporting the No.5 of the current Carlton captain - turned out in the famous dark Navy Blue strip for both the opening round of the famous/infamous 1945 premiership season, against Melbourne, and the second round encounter with Hawthorn at Glenferrie Oval.
Harold would have been part of that much-feted 1945 premiership team too, according to Alec, had war not intervened.
As he said, “We were posted overseas after the fifth round, and we weren’t very popular with Harry Bell the secretary because we didn’t tell Carlton early enough to stop our posting”.
A little over 12 months later - in the 10th round of 1946 - Alec strode onto the verdant field at Princes Park, for what would be his one and only senior appearance, against Footscray.
The home team got up by four points.
“I was picked in the first ruck with Jack Howell,” Alec recalled. [Jack] Wrout and [Fred] Davies were both out injured and Bob Chitty, who’d copped eight weeks after the ’45 Grand Final, played in the ninth round of ’46 but got reported again . . . so I was chosen in his place.”
“I got half a dozen kicks and kicked a goal in the last quarter.”
Though he fared well in what would be his one and only senior outing, Alec, a 40-game Carlton reserve grade player, is man enough to admit that he probably wasn’t good enough to further his career in the ones.
And as he so readily added: “It was great to put the Carlton guernsey on, and to play with some great players - Bert Deacon, Jack Howell and some of those chaps . . . it was a good team”.
As for Harold, injury unfortunately intervened.
“I got a knee in the groin in a practice match in Frankston at the start of ’46 and suffered a hernia,” he said. “I had to have an operation and for a time there they thought I wouldn’t have any kids.”
Though their tenures as Carlton footballers were all too brief, the Hantons’ love for the club never waned. For years they took their seats in the old Hawthorn Stand, and were shoulder-to-shoulder at the MCG for all eight of the Blues’ Grand Final conquests, beginning with 1968.
In their advancing years, the brothers both lost their sight - not that their love for Carlton ever waned. As late as 2000, Harold had his photo taken with Anthony Koutoufides on a much-anticipated visit to the old Carlton ground, while Alec, to the end, tuned in to Melbourne radio to follow the fortunes of his beloved Blues.
Alec, who married in 1975, survived his wife Val by 28 years. Harold is survived by his wife Jean, with whom he recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, sons Rod (formerly a Carlton reserve grade player) and Mark, daughter Lee, five grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Alec has been laid to rest at Fawkner Cemetery. Harold, whose funeral is to be conducted on Monday at Le Pine in East Kew, is to be cremated.
