Abe Hartley

Early days

Hartley was born in Dumbarton, Scotland and was the son of a tailor. After youth football with Artizan Thistle, he joined Dumbarton, where two of his brothers also played, in 1890. During his time with Dumbarton, he converted from a right back to a forward. While on the books of Dumbarton, the team won the first two Scottish Football League titles in 1891 and 1892 together with the 1891 Scottish Cup. However Hartley was not a regular with the club at this stage.

Everton

He moved south of the border to join Everton in December 1892, making his debut on 18 March when, playing at inside right, he scored in a 4–2 victory at Wolverhampton Wanderers. That was his only appearance in the 1892–93 season in which Everton finished third in the table. The following season, he made six league appearances, scoring twice, following this up with five goals from 11 appearances in the 1894–95 season when Everton finished as runners-up behind Sunderland. During this season he remained third–choice striker behind England internationals, Fred Geary and Jack Southworth. Following Southworth's retirement through injury and Geary's move to Liverpool, Hartley played more regularly although the arrival of Scotland international John Cameron prevented Hartley from claiming the centre-forward's berth as his own. In the 1895–96 season he made 15 appearances, scoring seven goals as Everton finished in third place followed by 14 appearances with six goals in the following…

After retiring from football in 1900, Hartley returned to live in Southampton. He took up employment with the London and South Western Railway but collapsed and died outside the pay office in Southampton Docks on 9 October 1909, aged only 37. A doctor at the inquest attributed his death to "syncope, arising from double pneumonia".

Dumbarton

1 representative cap for Dumbartonshire in 1892. Everton

FA Cup runners-up: 1897 Football League runners-up: 1894–95 Southampton

Southern League champions: 1898–99