Hannaford attended
The Crypt School in
Gloucester and then studied at
Durham University, where one of his contemporaries on the
university team was future England international
Peter Dixon. He came close to being dismissed from university after an academically disastrous second year, but was saved by the intervention of
Zoologist David Barker. After graduating from Durham with a
2:1 he continued his education at
Churchill College, Cambridge, and represented
Cambridge University R.U.F.C. Hannaford taught Biology at
Sherborne School (1968–1970), and later at
Clifton College and
Millfield. By 1997 he was reportedly retired in France. ==Rugby union career==