Frank Gordon Handford was born in 1884 in Eccles, Lancashire, the son of Joseph Handford, a tea merchant who hailed from Stockport, Cheshire, and his second wife Annie Elizabeth Walker of Lowestoft, Suffolk, England whom he married in 1882.
Frank had a number of older siblings from hisn father"s first marriage. He lived in Barton upon Irwell before he went to The Leys School in Cambridge as a boarder. In 1906 he enrolled for an agricultural course at the Aspatria Agricultural College, where after two years of theoretical and practical study he left with an award of the Diploma of the College.
Handford played for Aspartria during the 1906/7/8 seasons and for Kersal Football Club (which would later become Altrincham Kersal Reconstruction Finance Corporation) in the 1908/09 season and was shown in the Fixture Card as Vice-Captain for the season.
He later moved on to Manchester Football Club (later renamed Manchester Rugby Club). He was a stalwart of the Lancashire County side playing from 1906 through till the return season of 1918 after the Great War.
During his period of study at the Aspatria Agricultural College he played Rugby Union for Cumberland County on four occasions. Handford made his Test debut for England vs Wales at Cardiff on 16 January 1909.
He played in a further 3 matches for his country in that Five Nations championship.
In 1910 he was selected for the first official British tour to South Africa (in that it was sanctioned and selected by the four Home Nations official governing bodies). He played on all three tests. He served in the Cheshire Yeomanry, Machine Gun Corps during the rising to the rank of sergeant.
