A joiner by trade, John Hinton looked as though he might make the leap from Hampshire League football when he scored a hat-trick in a Southern Alliance League match. He was never given an extended run, however, in any of the first-team competitions and, in 1915, he severed his connections with the club to join the Royal Air Force, stationed at Farnborough. During his active service, he played for an English Air Force XI against their Scottish counterparts. After being demobilised in 1919, he went back to the Hampshire League – now at Woolston, with

Thornycrofts, whom he captained in their famous FA Cup match with Burnley at Fratton Park.

A strike in the Southampton Shipyards in 1921 caused him to find work elsewhere. He did so in Barnstaple, whence he was very soon invited to sign for Exeter City, who had just been elected, like Southampton, to the Football League’s new Division III. After making only four appearances, one of which was against Saints at The Dell, he returned to Thornycrofts. After that, he played for a while in Sholing, an area in which he would work for many years in the building trade.