Robert Hanley was one of 12 children born to a Liverpool painter and decorator. As a youngster, Hanley obtained a 1st class diploma in gymnastics and fencing from the YMCA Liverpool Gymnasium, and after becoming a self employed physical instructor, he became a sub-director of the Liverpool Gymnasium. Hanley concentrated on gymnastics, and despite finishing 16th in the Amateur Gymnastics Association individual championship at Bradford in January 1908, he was selected for the Great Britain squad for the London Olympics. He obtained his full Gymnastics Teaching Diploma in 1908, and obtained a post at the Cheshire County Training College in Crewe before moving nearer to home, when he secured a post with the St Helens YMCA. During World War I, Hanley was an instructor on the Army Gymnastics Staff. From the end of the hostilities in 1919, until 1953, Hanley worked in the St. Helens area, notably as a teacher at the Cowley School, where he was highly respected by pupils and fellow staff members. Affectionately known as “Pop”, Hanley was a very religious man, and after retiring moved down south, coincidentally to Cowley in Oxford.
Great Britain