# Colonel Bogey **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 6, 2005, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonel-bogey/302717 "2005-05-06T16:59:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonel-bogey/302717/1 "2005-05-06T16:59:01Z")
Has ‘Colonel Bogey’ ever been identified? The march came about when the composer heard a colonel on a golf course who would whistle what became the first two notes of the march, instead of shouting ‘Fore!’. It seems to me that if the colonel’s behaviour was unique, then someone might know who he was. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonel-bogey/302717/2 "2005-05-06T17:50:43Z")
Can we get a link here? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonel-bogey/302717/3 "2005-05-06T18:00:06Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Can we get a link here? > **[Colonel Bogey March](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Bogey_March)** > > The "Colonel Bogey March" is a British march that was composed in 1914 by Lieutenant F. J. Ricketts (1881–1945) (pen name Kenneth J. Alford), a British Army bandmaster who later became the director of music for the Royal Marines at Plymouth. > Since service personnel were, at that time, not encouraged to have professional lives outside the armed forces, British Army bandmaster F. J. Ricketts published "Colonel Bogey" and his other compositions under the pseudonym Kenneth Alford. Supposedly, the ... ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonel-bogey/302717/4 "2005-05-06T18:53:11Z")
This site: [http://www.colonelbogey.com/](http://www.colonelbogey.com/) calls him “mythical”: > [@](#): > > Colonel Bogey, the mythical 19th century golfer, who scored in the mid-80’s, has returned to reveal the secret to golf and to tell you how to apply the secret to your game. I can well believe it. What are the odds that the golfing “Bogey” and the “Colonel Bogey” march are named after the same person. At the outside, I’d guess that, if this is a real person, “Bogey” wasn’t his real name. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonel-bogey/302717/5 "2005-05-06T18:54:20Z")
More from that site. Don’t know how trustworthy it is: > [@](#): > > Golfers, who were pretty good but did not have a single number handicap would compete against bogey which was sometimes referred to as “Mr. Bogey.” Members of a British country club where most of the members were active or retired military decided that “Mr. Bogey” should have a rank as most of them did so they made him a Colonel. Often a single would be asked as he came off of 18, “Did you beat the Colonel today?” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonel-bogey/302717/6 "2005-05-06T19:05:23Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’d guess that, if this is a real person, “Bogey” wasn’t his real name. Obviously, that’s not his real name. Re: your second post. It may well be that ‘Colonel’ was just an arbitrary rank assigned to ‘bogey’. Still it appears that Kenneth Alford noticed a military man who whistled, used the notes in his march, and assigned the name ‘Col. Bogey’ to the march. So there appears to have been an actual person who inspired the tune. I’d guess that the person wasn’t a recluse, and that someone he knew would recognise the whistle. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonel-bogey/302717/7 "2005-05-06T20:33:27Z")
A “bogey” is related to “boggart” a type of frightening mythical monster. You’d have a ‘bogey-man’ under your bed, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonel-bogey/302717/8 "2005-05-06T20:40:58Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > A “bogey” is related to “boggart” a type of frightening mythical monster. You’d have a ‘bogey-man’ under your bed, for instance. Riddikulus ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonel-bogey/302717/9 "2005-05-06T21:49:15Z")
Every golf article in the popular press that I’ve read from the 1895-1900 period alluded to “Col. Bogey” as what golfers were playing against. A mythical score. “Par” shows up just after this. The writers all use the term, with no hint that they need to talk about some actual person or explain the term. The 1914 cite is spurious. Please write and tell them to change it. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2005, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonel-bogey/302717/10 "2005-05-07T05:31:20Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > The 1914 cite is spurious. Please write and tell them to change it. I’m not asking about the origin of the term. The question is whether the person who whistled the two notes that became the beginning of each line of _The Colonel Bogey March_ has ever been identified. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonel-bogey/302717/11 "2005-05-13T11:42:29Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > The question is whether the person who whistled the two notes that became the beginning of each line of _The Colonel Bogey March_ has ever been identified. First you’d have to establish that the assertion in wikipedia is true. The only source that wikipedia lists for their write up is [http://www.mvdaily.com/articles/1999/04/bogey.htm](http://www.mvdaily.com/articles/1999/04/bogey.htm) > [@](#): > > … but who in fact was Colonel Bogey? The story goes that this was a nickname by which a certain fiery colonel was known just before the 1914 War when Ricketts was stationed at Fort George near Inverness in Scotland. So, we’re left with an undocumented, fifth-hand “story” being used as a cite in a Wikipedia article.