Charles Brooking Hannah – God’s footballer

“His career will be over soon

And the rituals of a Saturday afternoon

Bid him a reluctant farewell

For he knows beyond the sport lies the spiritual”

Billy Bragg’s lyrics for the song God’s Footballer, in part tell the whole of the story of the former Wolverhampton striker Peter Knowles, who voluntarily gave the game away after becoming a Jehovah’s Witness.

And yet the words could so easily apply to “Brook” Hannah, a one-time Carlton footballer who dedicated 60 years of his life – not to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, but as an ordained Christian Minister with the China Inland Mission – and whose extraordinary career can now be detailed for the first time.

Brook Hannah played 14 games for Carlton in 1897 and then became a Christian missionary in China, where Christians were being killed  in the midst and aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion.

 

Tony De Bolfo writes about Brook Hannah’s life on the Carlton Football Club website.

“His career will be over soon

And the rituals of a Saturday afternoon

Bid him a reluctant farewell

For he knows beyond the sport lies the spiritual”

Billy Bragg’s lyrics for the song God’s Footballer, in part tell the whole of the story of the former Wolverhampton striker Peter Knowles, who voluntarily gave the game away after becoming a Jehovah’s Witness.

And yet the words could so easily apply to “Brook” Hannah, a one-time Carlton footballer who dedicated 60 years of his life – not to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, but as an ordained Christian Minister with the China Inland Mission – and whose extraordinary career can now be detailed for the first time.

– See more at: http://www.carltonfc.com.au/news/2014-08-14/gods-footballer-the-story-of-brook-hannah#sthash.k1tQJUzp.dpuf

“His career will be over soon

And the rituals of a Saturday afternoon

Bid him a reluctant farewell

For he knows beyond the sport lies the spiritual”

Billy Bragg’s lyrics for the song God’s Footballer, in part tell the whole of the story of the former Wolverhampton striker Peter Knowles, who voluntarily gave the game away after becoming a Jehovah’s Witness.

And yet the words could so easily apply to “Brook” Hannah, a one-time Carlton footballer who dedicated 60 years of his life – not to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, but as an ordained Christian Minister with the China Inland Mission – and whose extraordinary career can now be detailed for the first time.

– See more at: http://www.carltonfc.com.au/news/2014-08-14/gods-footballer-the-story-of-brook-hannah#sthash.k1tQJUzp.dpuf

Comments

  1. Former Australian cricketer Michael Lewis is a descendant of the same Lewis family as Tony mentions – his Dad was the maitre d’ at the OE all the time Mick was playing for Victoria and in the ODI TEAM.

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