 Stanning played three more times in 1939, but did very little of note on any of these occasions.The Second World War then intervened, and although he did return to play two games in 1946 (only the second of which, against Glamorgan, did he bat in), time had moved on and he was to make no more first-class appearances.His father, John Stanning senior, played 26 first-class matches around the turn of the twentieth century, while his uncle Henry Stanning played 33 times for Lancashire between 1906 and 1908.