Stan Charlton
Encyclopedia
Stanley "Stan" Charlton (born 28 June 1929 in Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...

, Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

) is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 former football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 player and manager. He is the son of Stanley Charlton, who played at full back for Exeter City
Exeter City F.C.
Exeter City Football Club is an English football club, based in Exeter, which is owned by its fans through the Exeter City Supporters Trust.The club was a member of the Football League from 1920 to 2003...

 and Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace F.C.
Crystal Palace Football Club are an English Football league club based in South Norwood, London. The team plays its home matches at Selhurst Park, where they have been based since 1924. The club currently competes in the second tier of English Football, The Championship.Crystal Palace was formed in...

 during the 1920s and 1930s. Despite his surname, he is not related to the more famous footballers Bobby Charlton
Bobby Charlton
Sir Robert "Bobby" Charlton CBE is an English former professional football player, a member of the England team who won the World Cup and Ballon d'Or for European Footballer of the Year in 1966...

 and Jack Charlton
Jack Charlton
John "Jack" Charlton, OBE, DL is a former footballer and manager who played for Leeds United in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and was part of the England team who won the 1966 World Cup...

, who were two contemporaries of his.

He started his career as an amateur with Bromley
Bromley F.C.
Bromley Football Club are an English football club based in Bromley, in Greater London, England. They currently play in the Conference South, and play their home matches at Hayes Lane.-Early years:...

, and won four caps for the England amateur team
England national amateur football team
The England national amateur football team was the amateur representative team for England at football. It was formed in 1906, due to the growth of the professional game which meant that amateur players could no longer easily find places in the main England national team.-First match and unbeaten...

, and was a member of the 1952 Olympic
1952 Summer Olympics
The 1952 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Helsinki, Finland in 1952. Helsinki had been earlier given the 1940 Summer Olympics, which were cancelled due to World War II...

 football tournament
Football at the 1952 Summer Olympics
The 1952 Olympic football tournament signalled the arrival of the 'Golden Team'; the 'Magical Magyars': Hungary. Ferenc Puskás, the great Hungarian known as the 'Galloping Major' for his military title, said of the 1952 competition: "It was during the Olympics that our football first started to...

 squad for the Great Britain
Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the 1952 Summer Olympics
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland competed as Great Britain at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. 257 competitors, 213 men and 44 women, took part in 128 events in 18 sports. British athletes have competed in every Summer Olympic Games...

 team, although he did not play. He signed as a professional for Leyton Orient
Leyton Orient F.C.
Leyton Orient F.C. are an English professional football club in East London. They currently play in Football League One and are known to their fans as the O's.Leyton Orient have spent one season in the top flight of English football, in 1962–63...

 in 1952, and was a near ever-present for the next three seasons for Orient, as they finished runners-up in the Third Division
Football League Third Division
The Football League Third Division was the 3 tier of English Football from 1920 until 1992 when after the formation of the Football Association Premier League saw the league renamed The Football League Division Two...

 in 1954-55
1954-55 in English football
The 1954–1955 season was the 75th season of competitive football in England, from August 1954 to May 1955:-Overview:* Chelsea win the League Championship for the first time.* Newcastle United win the FA Cup....

. He was selected to play for the Third Division South team
Football League Third Division North vs. South Representative Games
The Third Division North and Third Division South of The Football League was a level in English association football, which ran from 1921 to 1958.From 1954–55 season until 1957–58 season, there was a series of games between teams representing the Third Division North and the Third Division South.-...

 against the North in 1955/56.

In November 1955 Charlton joined Arsenal
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...

 with Orient team-mate Vic Groves
Vic Groves
Victor George "Vic" Groves is an English former footballer.Born in Stepney, London, Groves started his career at east London non-league clubs Leytonstone and Walthamstow Avenue, and then briefly as an amateur for Tottenham Hotspur before signing professional forms with Leyton Orient in 1954...

 for £30,000, and succeeded Len Wills
Len Wills
Leonard Edward "Len" Wills is an English former football player.Born in Hackney, London, Wills first played for the youth teams of non-league Eton Manor, before being signed by Arsenal in October 1949. For the next four years he played in the Gunners' reserve team, playing either at right half or...

 as the club's first-choice right back. He made his debut on 24 December 1955 against Chelsea
Chelsea F.C.
Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...

 and remained in the same position for nearly all of the rest of the season; he was also an ever-present in 1956-57
1956-57 in English football
The 1956–57 season was the 77th season of competitive football in England.Manchester United won the First Division to become English football champions for the fifth time. Tottenham Hotspur were runners-up. In the Second Division it was Leicester City who finished in top spot, ahead of East...

 and 1957-58
1957-58 in English football
The 1957–58 season was the 78th season of competitive football in England.-Overview:In this season, Sunderland was relegated for the first time in their history.This was the last season in which Division 3 was split, North and South...

, and played for the London XI
London XI
The London XI was an association football representative team, specially created to take part in the 1955-58 edition of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the precursor of today's UEFA Europa League although not recognized by UEFA....

 in both legs of the semi-finals of the 1955-58 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup 1955-58
The first Inter-Cities Fairs Cup took place over three seasons from 1955 to 1958. The competition began with a group stage with each team playing home and away against each other. Due to the competition rules which stated only one side from each city was allowed to compete, many cities with several...

 against Lausanne Sports
Lausanne Sports
Lausanne-Sports is a Swiss sports club based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is most famous for its football department , but the club also had athletics, sport rowing, and rink hockey departments until they split in 2009 over a row about the construction of a new stadium that will be built by...

.

However, he was dropped by Arsenal after a 3-1 defeat to Burnley
Burnley F.C.
Burnley Football Club are a professional English Football League club based in Burnley, Lancashire. Nicknamed the Clarets, due to the dominant colour of their home shirts, they were founder members of the Football League in 1888...

 in September 1958, in favour of Wills, the man he had originally displaced. Having made only four appearances in the first half of 1958-59
1958-59 in English football
The 1958–59 season was the 79th season of competitive football in England.-Diary of the season:August 1958: The Football League season begins with the new national Third and Fourth divisions that have been created from the old Third Division North and Third Division South.September 1958: Manchester...

 for Arsenal, he moved back to Orient in December 1958; he made 110 appearances for Arsenal, scoring three goals (all of them in the FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...

). At Orient, he remained at the side for the next seven seasons, skippering them to promotion to the First Division
Football League First Division
The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....

 in 1962 and for their one and only season in the top flight, 1962-63
1962-63 in English football
The 1962–63 season was the 83rd season of competitive football in England.-Overview:*Everton won the League Championship, their first post-war title.*Manchester United won the FA Cup, their first major trophy since the Munich Air Disaster in 1958....

.

Stan Charlton retired in summer 1965, having played 366 league matches for Orient over the two spells. He became manager of Weymouth
Weymouth F.C.
Weymouth F.C. are an English football club based in the town of Weymouth, who currently play in the Southern League Premier Division.-History:Weymouth Football Club were founded in 1890 and played their first game on 24 September of that year...

 and remained in that post for seven years. After that, he became a district manager for a local football pools
Football pools
A football pool, often collectively referred to as "the pools", is a betting pool based on predicting the outcome of top-level association football matches set to take place in the coming week. The pools are typically cheap to enter, with the potential to win huge money. Entries were traditionally...

company.

Although residing in Weymouth, despite the distance Stan is very proactive with the O's and is very much involved with Leyton Orient Supporters' Club where he has attended several end of season 'Star Man' awards evenings and other popular LOSC functions, such as the regular reunions of fellow O's players that played in the Leyton Orient side that won promotion to the 'Old' First Division for the first time in the Club's history in 1963. He has also taken part in a presentation involving Leyton Orient's supporters' trust, the Leyton Orient Fans' Trust.
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