Born at Seymour, Victoria in 1896, Buggy attended school there before moving to Melbourne with his mother after the death of his father.
He was closely involved in reporting many of the dramatic events of his time such as the fatal shoot-out between Squizzy Taylor and 'Snowy' Cutmore in 1927 and the arrival in Brisbane of Kingsford-Smith and the Southern Cross in 1928.
In 1932, following the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, he was the only reporter to gain an interview with Captain Francis de Groot.
& Bar, D.C.M the World War I recounting of his experiences Hells Bells and Mademoiselles in 1932, then in 1946 he wrote Pacific Victory.
He had a flair for the picturesque sporting phrase: he was widely believed to have coined the term 'bodyline' during the 1932/33 Ashes Test cricket series, but this claim was never settled conclusively.