Harry Stafford (1869–1940) was an English footballer who played a principal role in the formation of Manchester United Football Club. Born in Crewe, Cheshire, Stafford became a locomotive boilermaker employed by the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) at the expansive Crewe Works.
With Crewe Alexandra
After some impressive displays for the Crewe Alexandra Hornets team, Stafford made his first-team debut on 22 September 1890, in a Football Alliance game against Birmingham St George's at Nantwich Road. He would go on to make over 150 appearances for the Railwaymen and become captain of the Cheshire county team. As a Crewe Alexandra player he won Cheshire Senior Cup winners medals in 1891–92 and 1892–93.
Beside his football career, Stafford was a capable athlete who ran various distances from the 100 yards to the half-mile. He was also an exceptional hurdler and represented the Crewe Alexandra Athletic Club for several years until turning professional with Newton Heath disqualified him from competing in amateur athletics.
With Newton Heath
Stafford made his Heathens league debut in a 4–0 home win over Darwen on 3 April 1896 and immediately became the club's first-choice right-back. The following year he turned professional and was named club captain after Caesar Jenkyns was sold to Walsall. In 1900 he left the LNWR to become landlord of the Bridge House Inn, in Wrexham, North Wales., before travelling to Schenectady in NY State, where he began work as a boilermaker at the American Locomotive Company.
In 1917 Stafford moved to Quebec after obtaining the position of boiler inspector at the Montreal Locomotive Works but during the Great Depression lost his job and struggled financially throughout most of the 1930s. On 24 October 1940, contrary to reports that he had made a fortune as a hotelier, Harry Stafford died penniless at home on Erie Street, Montreal. His remains are interred in an unmarked grave in Mount Royal Cemetery, plot number G 733-L.