Biography
Leonard Verdun “Len” Robertson was very much the atypical footballer. He was born in South Bank, Middlesbrough in March 1916, a contemporary of South Bank’s most famous footballing son Wilf Mannion, and excelled a a schoolboy footballer. Yet by his early twenties he was living down the Normanby Road at Teesville, on the fringes of the Infant Hercules’ steel industry, working as a plater’s assistant in the steel fabrication industry and playing amateur football for Stockton. It was only during the later years of World War 2 that Len got involved in senior football as an inside forward, signing for Hartlepools United in 1944 and also playing wartime league matches as a guest player for Grimsby, Southport and Watford. In June 1946 he ventured south to join Watford on a permanent deal, where he made six appearances and scored two goals before returning north to Hull City in April 1947, shortly after a trial period at Bradford City.
He played the last two games of the 1946/47 season for Hull City and started seven of the opening nine fixtures of the following season. Robertson scored goals in consecutive mid-October matches against Halifax Town and Bradford City, but these transpired to be his last two appearances for the Tigers as he was replaced by more experienced squad members (in terms of game time, if not age). He joined Accrington Stanley in July 1948 but had only one season at Peel Park, starting only three games, before ending his career at 33.
Records show that Robertson’s first wife died in 1948 in Hull, which perhaps goes a little way to explain why he saw little first team action that season. In 1958 he remarried and lived in Eston, just down the road from his native South Bank. In 1960, while employed back in the steel fabrication industry as a welder, he spent time in the West Indies. In the 1960s Len developed multiple sclerosis but was determined to live a full life and took part in mecical trials at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital. After a long battle with his condition Len died in Saltburn on Christmas Eve 1979.
Details
Nationality: England
Date/Place of Birth: 10 March 1916, Middlesbrough
Hull City First Game: 31 May 1947, Barrow H (Division Three North), 31 years, 82 days old
Hull City Final Game: 20 September 1947, Bradford City H (Division Three North), 31 years, 194 days old
Clubs
Stockton FC, Hartlepools United (1944-1946), Watford (1946), Hull City (1946-1947), Accrington Stanley (1947-1948)
Hull City Record
Career: 9 apps, 2 goals
Len Robertson| Season | LGE App | LGE Gls | FAC App | FAC Gls | FLC App | FLC Gls | EUR App | EUR Gls | OTH App | OTH Gls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1946/47 | 2 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1947/48 | 7 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |