Hi my name is Stanley Garrett Hogan; I was born in Calcutta, India in 1946. I was the third child born to my mother and father. The eldest child a girl, Gloria died in early infancy at the tender age of 6 months, and then there was my older brother Geoffrey James Hogan who was born in Calcutta, in 1945. We were the fourth generation of Hogan’s to be born in India. I had a third brother Kenneth William Hogan, he was born in Australia. My father was Hubert “Sinclair” Hogan (it should have been “St Clare” but the priest got it wrong on his Baptismal Certificate) anyway he married my mother Margaret Helen (Mary) Mott, “Mary” was her selected Baptismal name, my mother adopted it and then used it as her middle name, when she converted to Catholicism and married my father – they were married in Calcutta 1938. My father was one of five boys. However only 4 went on to reach adulthood. My father was a Marine Engineer he worked for the Port Commissioners, in the Port of Calcutta. We lived in rented accommodation in a flat, 1/6 Remount Road. Alipore, Calcutta. Dad’s youngest brother Cecil Hogan joined the department of Customs and went on to become the Chief Commissioner of Customs for the Port of Calcutta, and retained this position right up to the time he retired. He never married, he stayed on and died and was buried in Calcutta, India.

My father and his family came from around the North West Frontier of India. He and his siblings were all born in and around Peshawar, Murree, Rawalpinidi, which is now part of Pakistan. Their father William Alexander Hogan was an Apothecary a Pharmacist/Chemist, the same profession as his father James. A. Hogan, James. A. Hogan was also a Doctor as were his 3 brothers. William. A Hogan (my Grandfather) married a Nora Muriel O’Brien (from County Clare) and they had 5 boys, William. A, Hogan (the same name as his father), Hubert. S. Hogan (my father), Melville Hogan, Cecil Hogan and Norman St James Hogan (Norman never reached adulthood). Their father, my Grandfather inherited a very prosperous Manufacturing Pharmacy Business, which included a number of Shop-front outlets, and a Transport Business (“A Toga business” I think is the Indian expression used to describe this Transport Business). This was all inherited from his father Dr James Alexander Hogan, who was also an Apothecary. They had Pharmacy shops and outlets in Rawalpindi, Murree, and Peshawar, it was a Manufacturing Pharmacy, a Retail Pharmacy and a Distributing Pharmacy (see some of the pictures and label details from some of their products, ie: attached to this article).A number of different relatives, have relayed and confirmed many interesting stories, concerning the Hogan family and their lives in India. Some of these stories include some of the sad family history and also some of their extravagances in India. Some of these stories regarding the Hogan family history in India, relates tales of a number of sad and even tragic events and occurrences, it also shows that they built up and established a very prosperous family business and a significant amount wealth (that is another story), and how it was somehow lost and/or squandered. There are many stories of money being delivered to the family home in carriages, and of it being transferred into the family home, by the bucket loads, and of a new car being left beside the road with a flat tyre, to be striped bare, because they had broken down and/or they could not be bothered having it fixed or repaired. There was one classic well-known story, of my Grandfather and his sons attending a wedding, and the new car they were driving got a flat tyre along the way. They proceeded to the wedding with the flat tyre, and after the wedding they found other means of transport home, they just left their new car at the side of the road, never to be seen again – to rot and to be stripped and vandalised. They could not be bothered organising for the puncture to be repaired, or for the tyre to be changed. Needless to say at this rate the family fortune and wealth did not last long. My Grandfather became sick not long after his wife died, he passed on the running and control of the Business Empire to a long serving and trusted employee. This employee cooked the books, he built up huge debts and gambled all the money and assets away – he found he had some sort of terminal illness, and finished his days enjoying the good life at the expense of the Hogan family’s fortune – end of story.

Hence the family, picked up what few belongings they had left and moved to Calcutta - the father (my Grandfather) and the four boys (one of these boys was my Dad). Their mother had previously died, and the boys had all finally reached the point were they all had to work and/or find some kind of full-time employment? My Grandfather by this time was semi retired, but carried on with some form of part-time work, working from home manufacturing Pharmacy products, but on a very much smaller subsistence scale. All the boys found some sort of full-time employment. I have a copy of a letter, which was written not that long after the whole Business collapsed. This letter is about 100 years old (it unfortunately has a few pages missing) but it was written to my Grandfather from one of his brothers, who was living in Calcutta at the time. He admonishes my Grandfather and all the other family members, for their carefree existence and their extravagant lifestyles etc. He goes on to explain how he was the only family member who was strong or brave enough to moved away from the family fortune and business and make something of himself and his life, purely by his own means and on his own merits, and not of the shirt tails or free hand outs from inherited family business and wealth etc., – like the rest of the family members, the business was by now was just about all lost and gone – and what now of the “Hogan family name and it’s reputation etc” in the Punjab etc etc? It seems after the family business failed and the money dried up, there was some descent and disagreement amongst some of the family members, regarding the ownership of some of the shops and some the shelf stock left in the Pharmacies and warehouses etc – this seemed to include all the stock items in the shops and more importantly the secret recipes and formula’s etc., for all the, medications, concoctions, tonics and remedies etc, all of which still had very good names, and still had large followings and substantial sales potential and markets in the length and breath of India?. There was talk in the letter of being careful, and of protecting these “secret recipes and formulas etc” for all these medical concoctions and treatments, and not to dispose of these if possible, and if they had to be sold, do not to sell them “too cheaply”, as they would be worth a lot of money in the right hands. This particular Uncle was also trying to negotiate the sale of one or more of these formulas/recipes for himself – of course at the right price? I got the impression from the tone of this letter, it was in answer to a very sad and despondent earlier letter from my Grandfather complaining about, the loss of the business, and what was the whole family was going through and what were they going to do now? This uncle more or less said that they had all brought it upon themselves, through their excesses and their extravagance lifestyles, he only seemed to be concerned and/or worried about one of the brothers, Wedgebury Earnest Hogan – which make me think he may have be sick, or he may of had some sort of serious medical problem, illness and/or physical or mental handicap? “What will become of poor Wedgebury”?

I will try as best I can, to start the Hogan family history, back at it’s beginning in Ireland. And explain as best I can with what little information I have been able to find and uncover from various sources. It starts in Ireland in the very early 1800’s, it is claimed that Garrett Hogan our first forbear to live in India, was born and bred in County Wicklow, in May 1800. It’s claimed Garrett Hogan was born on the 4th, 9th or 31st of May 1800. The story goes as a very young man Garrett Hogan went to the markets one day, selling pigs, he had sold his pigs and was returning home when he was “press ganged”, caught hold of and grabbed by a gang of men and put on a ship, and somehow finished up in India, in the East Indian Company Army. This is where the story becomes even sketchier. He rose through the ranks in the Army and at sometime married the widow of the Sargent Major from his regiment. Her surname was Filby we are not sure how many children she from her previous relationship with the Sargent Major (we think 2 children a boy and a girl, and we think this girl went on to marry a chap by the name of Brown)? She went on to have 8 children with Garrett Hogan, 4 boys and 4 girls. The 4 boys, one of which was my Great grandfather, all went on to become Pharmacists and also Doctors My great grandfather, James Alexander Hogan, was the youngest of these 8 children. There is little knowledge of Garrett Hogan’s rank and/or his actual time and life in the Army. They claim is his Regiment was the 1st Company, 1st Battalion of the Honourable East India Company. There is also some confusion regarding the date of his marriage, either 1825 or 1835. It is claimed he married Mrs Philby or Filby not long after the death of her husband, Sergeant Major Filby – this could be checked and confirmed through some of the old Army records, one would presume? It is further claimed that Garrett Hogan retired from the Army in 1840 and was given some sort of appointment as a high ranking officer in the Punjab somewhere near Gujrater Surbaee. It is stated that Garrett Hogan received some private information of the Sikh’s Army advance, and he informed Lord Gough, who it appears, was the Commander-in-chief of The British Army. The British Army was resting after a long march and they were not ready for action. But Garrett Hogan rode the leading horse in the gun team, and brought three guns into action one after the other and saved the British Army – it seems he did this, dressed in civilian clothing? The story continues and it is further claimed that Garrett Hogan’s son, James’s Hogan was born during this battle and was delivered by the Doctor of the regiment who was also attending to the wounded and the dead, and the dead officer’s were laid out on Garrett Hogan’s dinning room table, it was said they were from an infantry regiment. Garrett Hogan retuned to Calcutta and died of Cholera in Fort William. He was very high in the Free Masons movement and his body was carried by the Free Masons with full Masonic Honours to the Dum Dum cemetery where he was buried on 15th September 1841. The other information which we have been given concerning Garrett Hogan and his family is that his father’s name was Michael Hogan, and he was a shoe maker in Wicklow, he had thought Garrett Hogan had run away from home and had gone to Australia.

There is no word or evidence that I can find regarding the Birth and/or Baptism of James Alexander Hogan. But I have discovered information of a “Garrett Hogan” 4 sons. There is however documented evidence of James Hogan’s service record, of him becoming an apprentice Apothecary and his progress up through the ranks to a full fledge Grade 1 Apothecary, and he went on to study and became a Doctor as did his 3 other older brothers.

James Alexander Hogan y grandfather married Charlotte Maria Jacobi at Fort William on 13th July 1863. Charlotte was said to have been born in Jhansie on the 19th February 1846. She was the daughter of Fredrick Ernest Jacobi and Sophia Matilda Jacobi. Fredrick was a Coach Builder and had a Coach Building Business and was one of the well known and respected Merchant of Cawnpore. He had a Brother Henry Jacobi who was a Watch Maker and Jeweller, also a respected Merchant of Cawnpore. James Hogan’s wife Charlotte Jacobi was an orphan, she lost her entire family when she was about 11 or 12 years old, her mother and father, her brothers and sisters, and all her relative died in the Cawnpore uprising and massacre of 1857. All her immediate family and all her relative perished. They all died and/or were murdered, during this uprising, a number were savagely knifed, butchered and murdered and then thrown down a well. These innocent people were not soldiers; these were just town folk, civilian, innocent men, women, and defenceless children. They were murdered because of the nothing else, but the colour of their skin – and from all reports it might not have necessarily been entirely all that white?

There is well documented evidence and narrative in Andrew Wards book – “Our Bones Are Scattered”, on the Cawnpore Massacre and Indian Mutiny of 1857. This book vividly depicts how each of Charlotte’s parents and siblings died and also how her Uncle, Aunty and cousins all died, many were shot others were hacked and butchered to death during this Massacre and Mutiny. The book also has a photograph of my great grandmother Charlotte Hogan (nee Jacobi) as a young girl – about 11 or 12 years old. Her life was spared as she had been sent to Calcutta, Fort William, with an Ayer for medical treatment as she was very sick. There is some family talk that Charlotte was then brought up by the Wesley family in India, who were related to the Duke of Wellington. Another source suggests it was the famous Wedgwood or Wedgebury family, the pottery family? None of this information has been able to be substantiated or confirmed at this stage.

Charlotte and James Hogan went on and produced a large family some 13 children in all. They also started a very successful Pharmacy and Transport Business, which was then left and taken over by their children, which would have specifically included my Grandfather William Alexander Hogan, who like his father James was also an Apothecary ie: a Chemist a Pharmacist.

The following tries to cover the children of James and Charlotte Hogan. This is a difficult task as families move away from each other, plus the girls marry and then change their names. But I have tried my best to be, as comprehensive as possible with what sources and details I have been able gain from different family members, to date. But I would love to hear from others if there are things that are wrong and things they can add to. This is hopefully an on going story.

This is a list of what is thought to have been the names of the children of James Hogan and Charlotte Hogan (nee Jacobi), following their marriage on the 13th July 1863. This list has been compiled by word of mouth from the relatives of different families who were descendants of some of these children listed below. There is no known order to their births, or that this list of names is completely true or accurate.

James Hogan – Charlotte Hogan (nee Jacobi)

(1) Mary Hogan

(2) Alexandria Hogan (possibly the eldest)

(3) William Hogan (possibly second eldest)

(4) Charles Hogan

(5) James (Barney) Hogan

(6) Michael Hogan

(7) Ida Hogan

(8) Aileen Hogan

(9) Wedgebury

(10) Helen

(11) Nelly Hogan (possibly the youngest)

(12) & (13) Two children died as infants?