Archie Bogle's Family Honoured in Waipukurau

Archie Bogle's brothers honoured in Waipukurau

Three brothers of the famous and well known surveyor, Archie Bogle have been honoured by having a street named after them in Waipukurau, central Hawkes Bay. Archie was considered to be one of the most widely known and best respected surveyors of his day.

Three of Archie’s younger brothers, George, Gilbert and Gordon served in the WW1 armies of New Zealand, Canada and Australia and all three were killed in successive autumns from 1915 to 1917. Archie also served during WWI as a Lieutenant in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and was a Captain of New Zealand Engineers in the Pacific (mainly Tonga) during WWII.

Their father, James Bogle was the train station master in Waipukurau for 36 years, helping build the railway line between Waipukurau and Napier. To honour the brothers, the street named ‘Railway Esplanade’ was renamed ‘Bogle Brothers Esplanade’ on Armistice Day last November.

Archibald Hugh Bogle CBE, FNZIS or Archie as he was known is a well-known character of the New Zealand survey scene. As a member of NZIS he held all the offices of the institute including editorship of the NZ Surveyor Journal for 38 years and Presidency twice from 1931-33 and 1955 to 57. Archie also gained the highest NZIS award, the Fulton Medallion (Class A1) for outstanding service to the Institute and his profession and was awarded a Fellowship. The Bogle Award was also established in Archie’s honour for the benefit of promising young surveyors. Hewas made a Fellow of the Institute in 1948 and in 1959 he received a C.B.E for his outstanding services to the profession and country.

His association with surveying extended over 70 years starting in 1900 when he joined the Department of Lands & Survey as a draughting cadet. He later transferred to Wellington as a Survey Cadet and completed much of his cadetship doing bush work in the Whanganui -Taihape area before establishing himself in private practices.

NZIS published Archie’s book ‘Links in the chain, Field Surveying in Early New Zealand’ in 1975. He wrote the book recording his experiences as a surveyor from youth to middle age about three years before his death in 1972 at the age of 90.

NZIS commissioned a painting of Archie in 1965 from iconic NZ artist Peter McIntyre. The painting was on display at the Otago Survey School for many years until it was returned to National Office in 2011.

Read A Short Biography of Archie Bogle by NZIS Fellow, Don McKay

References

Bogle, A.H. (1975): Links in the Chain, Field Surveying in Early NZ

Hunt, M. (Napier Mail 11/11/2015): Four Brothers went to war, one returned

B&W images were scanned from: Bogle, A.H. (1975): Links in the Chain, Field Surveying in Early NZ.

This article was first published in Surveying +Spatial magazine edition 85, March 2016.