From Adelaide, South Australia, Hele played club cricket, but retired at an early age after an injury.

Throughout his life, he had been an avid collector of cricket memorabilia and writing, including souvenirs personally received from players he had umpired.

Like his father, he played as a wicket-keeper, keeping wicket for the Brompton Methodists, and later for the West Torrens Cricket Club in the higher-level SACA District competition.

[4] Hele was selected to make his first-class umpiring debut in a match towards the end of the 1920–21 Australian season, between South Australia and a touring English side, captained by Johnny Douglas.

[note 2] In March 1927, whilst umpiring a grade cricket game between Sturt and Kensington at the Adelaide Oval, Hele was struck in the temple by a ball thrown from the square leg fielder, and, after collapsing, had to be escorted from the field.

Although Hele remained neutral throughout the controversial tour, he would write at the series' end that, in his opinion, "we have seen the last of this type of bowling in Australia".

In the book, Hele criticised Douglas Jardine's tactics during the series, expressing that he had "never seen more vicious bowling".

[2] Hele died in Preston, a suburb of Melbourne, on 28 August 1982, having been widowed thirteen years previously.

[26] He had married Matilda Jane Hann on 12 March 1918 at the Baptist Church on Flinders Street in the Adelaide city centre.

[2] Although known primarily for his role in the Bodyline series, Hele was recognised as the best umpire in South Australia at the time of his selection to umpire in Test matches,[4] and was held in high regard by players and officials from both Australian teams and touring international teams.

[28] Despite Hele's opinion of Douglas Jardine's tactics during the bodyline, Jardine respected his umpiring ability, and in a 1932 letter to an Australian cricket official, placed him on the same level as England's Frank Chester: "as you know, we in England bracket Hele and Chester as the two best umpires in the world".

Similarly, Sir Donald Bradman wrote in his 1950 book Farewell to Cricket that both he and the Englishmen agreed that Hele was "the best Australian umpire between the two wars".