Brook Hannah

Charles Brooking 'Brook' Hannah (28 September 1874 – 14 January 1961) was a former Australian rules footballer turned missionary who played with Carlton in the Victorian Football League (VFL; formerly Victorian Football Association [VFA]).[1]

Brook Hannah
Brook Hannah when playing for Carlton Football Club
Personal information
Full name Charles Brooking Hannah
Date of birth (1874-09-28)28 September 1874
Place of birth Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia
Date of death 14 January 1961(1961-01-14) (aged 86)
Place of death Tunbridge Wells, England
Position(s) Rover / Forward
Other occupation Missionary
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1897 Carlton 14 (0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1897.
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Life and career
Carlton team, 1896. According to his surviving niece, Brook Hannah is believed to be the player seated in the middle row with the cap who is turning slightly away from the camera.

Brook Hannah was born on 28 September 1874 to William Hannah and Polly Lewis. His family home "Llanellan", was named after a township in Wales. It was said that his father became estranged from the family and supposedly sailed to New Zealand.[2]

He studied law at the University of Melbourne before his debut for the "Maroons" against Carlton on 15 July 1893. He is accredited with at least 37 VFA games and a further 14 for Carlton in the VFL, and was considered one of the best players afield.[2] Carlton captain Jimmy Aitken said that "Brook Hannah defeated Collingwood's Pannam pointless and had worked over Geelong's McCallum in a similar fashion two weeks earlier."[3]

After retiring from playing football, Hannah joined the China Inland Mission as an ordained missionary, and served as an assistant superintendent to Bishop Mowll of the Anglican Diocese of Szechwan.[2] He survived the attacks on foreign Christian missionaries during the Boxer Rebellion. He later worked in Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania). Hannah served as a missionary for over 50 years before retiring to Tunbridge Wells in England with his wife, May, an English-born missionary, where he died on 14 January 1961.[2]

Personal life

Brook Hannah met his future wife May, also a missionary, in China. The couple married around 1904. They had two sons, David and John, both died in infancy.[2]

See also

Notes
  1. Holmesby, Russell; Main, Jim (2009). The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers: every AFL/VFL player since 1897 (8th ed.). Seaford, Victoria: BAS Publishing. p. 341. ISBN 978-1-921496-00-4.
  2. Bolfo, Tony De (14 August 2014). "God's Footballer". carltonfc.com.au. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  3. "Brook Hannah". blueseum.org. Retrieved 26 May 2023.
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