Mexborough & Swinton Times, September 30, 1932

Obituary – Charlie Hague

Charlie Hague, better known as Charlie Bolton, who died and was buried at Barnburgh last week, was, in his heyday, sporting character of some note in the district. He came to Mexborough at the as a youth from Bawtry, and served an apprenticeship to butchering, but his mind was on the turf and he played so locally that in his early 20s he accumulated a small fortune. Likely come, likely go and Charlie was no exception to the rule, but he enjoyed his innings and it lasted longer than such luck generally does. In the end he reversed the usual procedure for what he won as a punter he lost as a bookmaker.

During this phase of his career he invested in a couple of racehorses, one of which “Lady Emily,” had some success, but nothing corresponding to the satisfaction Charlie felt any status as a racehorse owner. Indeed it created a stir in his adopted town of Mexborough, where he was considered a very dashing fellow indeed. At this time he had opportunities which with a man of sound judgement might have led to the lasted wealth. However Charlie was a money-spinning and not the money making sort.

While he was prosperous all were welcome to share in his prosperity. At that time he was known as the King of Creshire (Creswell) Row,” a slum district of Mexborough, and fed and clothed half the juvenile population of that district. He delighted in get up backyard races as a pretext for distributing food and clothing among the bairns.

While he had money in his pocket he could not bear to see a child go short of either, and often he would startle an ill-shod little lad by seizing him in the street, rushing him to the nearest shoemaker’s and “fitting him up.”

His prosperity did not last, but whatever he did and however he fared, sport was his ruling passion. He was a very fine player of knur and spell and “peggy.” and a fair performer at cricket and football, racing and boxing were his chief delights. He associated with the boxing career of “Iron” Hague from start to finish. He helped to bring the lad through the rough stage of fights in fields and booths, and was his closest companion all through his National Sporting Club career and right down to the lost tragic defeat at the hands of Tom Cowler in the Montagu yard. He delighted in the genie, and toiled early and late to make and keep his pupil fit. It was a hard and rough service, but Charliew was happy and proud to labour in it.

He was the incarnation of Charles Reade’s Denys (“The Cloister and the Hearth”), a good companion for all weather, cheerful and good-tempered in adversity, the life and soul of every company, a great practical joker but incapable of unkindness.

He outlived his ‘prosperity and most of the friendships it brought him. For the last twenty-five years of his life he lived at Barnburgh, and when his “sporting career” closed he found work on Lord Halifax’s estate as a gamekeeper. Fur the last few months he was laid aside by ill-health and he died at the age of 58, leaving a widow and a daughter.