by Elyne Mitchell
Oliver
Hogue (1880-1919), journalist and soldier, was born on 29 April 1880 in Sydney,
second son of native-born parents James Alexander Hogue and his wife Jessie,
née Robards. The family comprised six boys and four girls.
Oliver
was educated at Forest Lodge Public School, Sydney. Tall, active and wiry, an
all-round athlete and a skilled horseman and rifle-shot, he considered himself
a 'bushman'. After leaving school he cycled thousands of miles, exploring most
of Australia's eastern and northern coast, and worked as a commercial traveller
before joining the Sydney Morning Herald in 1907.
He
enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in September 1914 as a trooper with
the 6th Light Horse Regiment. Commissioned second lieutenant in November, he
sailed for Egypt with the 2nd L.H. Brigade in the Suevic in December.
Hogue
served on Gallipoli with the Light Horse (dismounted) for five months, then was
invalided to England with enteric fever. In May 1915 he was promoted lieutenant
and appointed orderly officer to Colonel (Sir) Granville Ryrie, the brigade
commander. Charles Bean observed: 'Day after day the Brigadier … tramped round
the front line with his enthusiastic and devoted orderly officer, Oliver
Hogue'. In letters to his family and to the Sydney Morning Herald from
Gallipoli, he was always cheerful, enjoying 'a scrap'. Insisting on fair
reporting, he denied incorrect reports of mutilations by the Turks. His letters
and articles present a well-perceived picture of events and good understanding
of the soldiers. In a letter to his father he remarked: 'I might be rather
angry with Captain Bean first because he beat me to the post for the big job,
and second because he seems to have ignored our Brigade all along, but I find
him so absolutely straight and sincere and honest that I like him immensely and
always have'.
As
'Trooper Bluegum' he wrote articles for the Herald subsequently collected in
the books Love Letters of an Anzac (London, 1916) and Trooper Bluegum at the
Dardanelles (London, 1916). Sometimes representing war as almost a sport, he
took pride in seeing 'the way our young Australians played the game of war'.
Hogue
returned from hospital in England to the 6th L.H. in Sinai and fought in the
decisive battle of Romani. Transferred to the Imperial Camel Corps on 1
November 1916, he was promoted captain on 3 July 1917. He fought with the Camel
Corps at Magdhaba, Rafa, Gaza, Tel el Khuweilfe, Musallabeh, and was with them
in the first trans-Jordan raid to Amman. In 1917 Hogue led the 'Pilgrim's
Patrol' of fifty Cameliers and two machine-guns into the Sinai desert to Jebel
Mousa, to collect Turkish rifles from the thousands of Bedouins in the desert.
After
the summer of 1918, spent in the Jordan Valley, camels were no longer required.
The Cameliers were given horses and swords and converted into cavalry. Hogue,
promoted major on 1 July 1918, was now in Brigadier General George
Macarthur-Onslow's 5th L.H. Brigade, commanding a squadron of the 14th L.H.
Regiment. At the taking of Damascus by the Desert Mounted Corps in September
1918, the 5th Brigade stopped the Turkish Army escaping through the Barada
Gorge. (Sir) Henry Gullett wrote: 'A handful of Australians of the 14th Light
Horse Regiment under Major Oliver Hogue occupied a house at the entrance of the
gorge, and poured galling fire at a few yards' range into the now distracted
Turks'.
Oliver
Hogue went through the whole campaign of the Desert Mounted Corps, but died of
influenza at the 3rd London General Hospital on 3 March 1919. He was buried in
the Australian military section of Brookwood cemetery. He was unmarried. His
twin sister Amy had died the previous year.
As
well as the articles sent to Australia, and some in English magazines, Hogue
wrote a third book, The Cameliers (London, 1919), also some verse. His
contributions to Australia in Palestine(Sydney, 1919), edited by H. S. Gullett
and C. Barrett, were two poems and an essay on the Camel Brigade.
Hogue's
verse was not, according to Bertram Stevens, poetry 'in the serious sense of
that word'. His first two books, Stevens wrote, 'contain the impressions of a
buoyant and generous soul—a healthy athlete enjoying life thoroughly, and
regarding danger as absolutely necessary to give it zest'. His letters
'conveyed a good deal of the happy-go-lucky spirit of the Australians, their
indifference to danger, and laughter when in difficulties or in pain'.
Select
Bibliography
H. S. Gullett, The A.I.F. in Sinai and Palestine (Syd, 1935)
C. E. W. Bean, The Story of Anzac, vol 2 (1924)
J. R. Hall, The Desert Hath Pearls (Melb, 1975)
G. F. and E. M. Langley, Sand, Sweat and Camels (Kilmore,
Vic, 1976)
Kia Ora Cooee, Apr, May, Dec 1918
Aussie, 15 Sept 1920
Sydney Morning Herald, 12 Mar 1919
Hogue letters (Australian War Memorial).
Sources:
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