He was the son of Glencoe Symon Stanley and Florence Louise Crooks of Little Thurrock, Grays.
He went to St Thomas's School in Grays before joining the Bata Shoe Company. He was a popular boy whilst at school who would help the Nuns with some of the teaching.

It was reported in the Bata Record that his body was recovered from the Sea off the Dutch coast a month after he was reported lost on his way back from a raid over Germany. Prior to this he had been transferred from Wellington's to Lancasters.
Stanley died on Saturday 3rd April, 1943, aged 18.
