Chas Bogle was born in Napier, on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island, on 14 April 1883. The middle of five children to William Bogle and Matilda Wattie, he was schooled in Pahiahia and Hastings prior to the family’s relocation to Fremantle in October 1897. Tragedy struck ten years later when William, Town Clerk at the remote Mid-West settlement of Day Dawn near Cue, passed away from pneumonia.
As a young man Chas served two and a half years in the volunteer-driven Fremantle Field Artillery, an experience he would draw upon with a few years. Living with his mother and siblings on John Street in Fremantle, he was studying to become an accountant and in October 1908 received the good news that he had passed the Intermediate Examination set by Australia’s Central Examining Board.
Chas didn’t play football but his knowledge of the game, and business, landed him the positions of team selector and assistant manager when the West Australian State team toured the eastern seaboard in mid-1909. His younger brother, Albert, was a key member of the side that claimed three wins, fives draws and two losses in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
Not long after Chas relocated to the Wheatbelt farming town of Kukerin where, in late 1912, he was elected secretary of the local branch of the Farmers and Settlers Association and appointed as Justice of the Peace for the Katanning district. Twelve months later he moved to Geraldton to establish Bogle Brothers, a merchant business specialising in livestock and farm machinery, with Albert.
In November 1915 Chas enlisted as a Gunner with the Field Artillery Brigade. While training at Blackboy Hill he spent a fortnight in Isolation Camp due to influenza but by March 1916 had been ‘taken on strength’ and deployed to the battlefields of France. He is likely to have entered the line near Armentieres in a quiet ‘nursery’ sector to gain trench warfare experience before moving to the devastating fighting at Pozieres in the Somme Valley during July.
The wet and cold conditions were taking their toll on Chas’ health. Diagnosed as suffering from asthma in August, he was sent to England for his recovery and didn’t return to active duty for three months. Back with is unit, he lasted less than four weeks before an eye complaint had him admitted to King George Military Hospital in London. A medical assessment on his service record from this period reads,
Patient was evacuated from line last Aug. suffering from Asthma. This condition appears to have cleared up as he has not had an attack for several weeks. He has developed a cystic tumour in the lumbar region which is still draining, the tumour appears to extend towards the lower pole of kidney and seems to take it’s origin in an old scar. He was operated on several years ago for an abscess in the kidney … Permanently unfit for general service. Unfit for home services for 6 months.
Chas returned home to run the family business in Geraldton, where he met his soon-to-be wife Jean Hymus. The couple were married in the south-west town of Wellington in August 1922 and ten months later welcomed the arrival of their first child, Stewart. Soon after they relocated back to Geraldton where three additional children were born.
Chas sold his share in Bogle Bros to his brother to become a pastoralist at Narndee Station, near Mount Magnet. Four days after Christmas 1931, Jean was killed by a lightning strike while riding a horse about the station. With four children under the age of 10 to care for, Chas married Leonorah Maunsell, who was 25 years his junior, in mid-1934. The following year the family matriarch Matilda passed away at the age of 85.
Chas re-enlisted in February 1943, most likely with the Volunteer Defence Corps whose job was to protect Australia from potential Japanese invasion. 21-year old Stewart was killed in action over Germany in August 1944 while serving in the Royal Australian Air Force. Chas spent his final years living in West Perth with Leonorah.
Charles Bogle was 76 when he passed away on 27 March, 1960, in Perth.