Wrestling played big part in life

Walter Randolph Hogg 1887-1941

Regular readers of this column may think I am an avid fan of wrestling, given that this is the second article within in a very few weeks about proponents of the sport– well, no, I am not.

These two wrestlers, Joseph Dufty and Walter Hogg, came to my notice by quite different routes – one, Dufty, through noting the simplicity of the headstone on his grave and Hogg through researching the houses he built. They led quite different lives: Dufty was a carter and sideshow operator, Hogg was a builder.

They also died in very different circumstances; Dufty dramatically being shot at his own sideshow shooting booth and Hogg after a short illness.

Walter Hogg was born in Wellington and educated in Hawera where he later worked as joiner and carpenter.

The family settled in Frankton and he and his father worked for timber merchants Ellis and Burnand, as joiner and manager respectively.

In 1908 Walter Hogg married Ruth Connolly, a ‘‘very quiet wedding’’ according to the Waikato Times. Ruth was the daughter of John Connolly of Frankton.

In 1911 Hogg purchased two quarter-acre sections on Marama Street, each on a corner of Moana Street.

The two houses on the corner sections are similar in style and construction and it is thought that Hogg built them at much the same time.

In 1914 he advertised ‘‘to let or for sale an eight-roomed bungalow, every modern convenience, town and tank water, electric light, etc’’.

In December 1918 Hogg sold both properties.

Just how much other building contract work Hogg undertook is uncertain, as his name seldom appears on the building permits index.

He did apply to erect his own dwelling in Norton Road, in 1921.

Hogg died aged 54 in 1941 and was buried at Maunu Cemetery near Whangarei. At the time of his death he was working in Whangarei. The Waikato Times noted: ‘‘Apart from wrestling and weightlifting, Mr Hogg was prominent as a runner and footballer.

‘‘His sons are well known in boxing and wrestling circles.’’

He was well known in both Australia and

New Zealand, sometimes under his alias Wally Evans.

The Northern Advocate added: ‘‘Never in his lifetime had Mr Hogg met a stronger man than himself.

The late Mr Hogg had a jovial personality and made many friends.’’

He didn’t make a great friend of Walter Robertson when they got into a scuffle in the Coronation Hotel in Gisborne in 1940 - the ‘‘Storm in a Bar’’ resulted in Robertson suffering a broken ankle, and Hogg was charged with assault. Robertson was a professional boxer but he said he would not have taken on a man of Hogg’s weight (he was 15 stone, 95kg) and boxing and wrestling experience.

All witnesses agreed that Robertson was using foul language and was aggressive.

Hogg asserted that he was trying to subdue Robertson as he seemed about to attack an older man and he had no recollection of kicking Robertson’s ankle.

The judge, in summing up, said ‘‘stories given by witnesses were so absolutely conflicting that it was hard to believe that the discrepancies were due to honest lapses of memory’’.

The jury took only 20 minutes to find Hogg not guilty.

Hogg’s boxing was not always successful – in two bouts against another ‘‘leading exponent of the art’’, Alec Pooley, in Te Aroha in 1919, Hogg was knocked out in the second round, and in the other, in four minutes. In 1920, he was knocked out within the first minute by opponent George Modrich.

Whether Hogg and Dufty knew each other socially in Hamilton is not known, but their paths did cross in their wrestling careers. In 1919 Hogg (as Evans) issued a challenge, that as the heavyweight champion of New Zealand in the Catch-as-Catch-Can style, he was prepared to defend his title.

Hogg defeated Dufty in a match at Te Aroha, and further challenges followed.

The New Zealand Truth reported, in 1925, that Hogg ‘‘is very angry because no-one has answered his open challenge for an all-round go’’, so perhaps he was the champion by default.