Oliver Hogue was educated at Forest Lodge Public School, Sydney and was an accomplished athlete and horseman, and a skilled rifleman. Hogue worked as a commercial traveller before beginning work with the Sydney Morning Herald in 1907.
His father was the journalist and New South Wales politician James Alexander Hogue, and his mother was Jessie Robards. He had a twin sister who died 5 July, 1918. He had 5 brothers and three other sisters including the actress Tien Hogue.
In 1914, Hogue enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force as a trooper in the Sixth Light Horse regiment, serving at Gallipoli and in the desert campaigns. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1915, transferred to the Imperial Camel Corps in 1916 and promoted to Captain in 1917.
Under his pseudonym 'Trooper Bluegum', he worked for some years as a journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald. His work was later published as two books, Love Letters of an Anzac and Trooper Bluegum at the Dardanelles.
Hogue survived the war, but died in England's 1919 influenza epidemic.
