William John Hartill (18 July 1905 – 12 August 1980), also known as Ted Hartill, was a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

, who spent the majority of his career at

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

. He stands as the club's third-highest goalscorer in their history with 170 goals. Nicknamed 'Artillery' after a stint serving as a bombardier in the Royal Horse Artillery after leaving school, Hartill joined then-Second Division

Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though gr ...

as a semi-professional in August 1928, making his league debut on 24 November 1928 at

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The club competes in , the third tier of English football, and is managed by Graham Alexander. The club was founded in 1903 and ...

. The following year, his first full season as a professional, he scored 33 goals in 36 games to finish as the club's top goalscorer. He repeated this feat in the next three successive seasons (five times in total), helping the club regain their top flight status as Second Division champions in 1931–32. He remained at Molineux until summer 1935, when he was sold to Everton. His overall tally of 170 goals made him the club's all-time leading goalscorer at the time, a record which stood until April 1980 when broken by John Richards. He twice scored 5 goals in a single match, a record never bettered by a Wolves player, and scored a then club record 16 hat-tricks (later beaten by

Steve Bull Stephen George Bull (born 28 March 1965) is an English former professional footballer who is best remembered for his 13-year spell at Wolverhampton Wanderers. He played there from 1986 until his retirement from playing in 1999, and holds the c ...

). After a brief stay at Everton, he moved across

Stanley Park Stanley Park is a public park in British Columbia, Canada, that makes up the northwestern half of Vancouver's Downtown Vancouver, Downtown peninsula, surrounded by waters of Burrard Inlet and English Bay, Vancouver, English Bay. The park bor ...

to rivals

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

in January 1936, but again his spell with the club was to be short-lived. He managed just 4 games for the Reds during January–February 1936, before moving to

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers FC is a men's professional football club in Bristol. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club is affiliated to Bristol Rovers W.F.C., whose team play in the FA Women's National Leag ...

as part of the deal that saw Phil Taylor move in the opposite direction. He retired from the game in 1940, after the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, due to a leg injury suffered two years earlier. He died in August 1980 at the age of 75.

References

External links

LFChistory.net player profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hartill, Billy 1905 births 1980 deaths Footballers from Wolverhampton English men's footballers Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Everton F.C. players Liverpool F.C. players Bristol Rovers F.C. players Men's association football forwards English Football League players Royal Horse Artillery soldiers 20th-century British Army personnel 20th-century English sportsmen