Charles Ebenezer Tolhurst, was the son of Ephraim and Sarah Tolhurst from Hartley, just west of the Blue Mountains.
Among the more mature recruits when he signed up in December of 1915, Charles his trade as a butcher and his footballing life with the Woonona Sweethearts well behind. One of the NSW team that played the touring New Zealanders in 1905, Tolhurst won both his State caps that season playing on the right wing.
Nicknamed ‘Bulgie’ by his footballing mates, Tolhurst was assigned to the mining corps on his enlistment and would find himself sent straight to the front lines alongside others from the coalmining heartland of the Illawarra.
A warrant was issued in March of 1916 for his arrest before he’d left the country after missing his boat from Melbourne, but eventually he was set to work with the mining corps in Belgium and France. He again absented himself for a couple of days and suffered the ignominy of being docked two days pay. ‘Stumpy’ as he was known to his army chums also had a stint in hospital with one of the more common complaints, yet rarely talked about inflictions.
Tolhurst was demobilised in March of 1919 returning to the quiet life and trying to forget the horrors of war, moving to the inner west of Sydney where he spent the rest of his life raising a family of six with wife Catherine until his death in 1953.