Robert Vogel was born in Vienna, Austria on November 4th 1929. His family escaped and took refuge from nazism and war in England. He then went to King Henry VIII's Grammar School in Abergavenny and to Cardiff High School in Cardiff. In 1949, he decided not to accept an already awarded scholarship to Oxford University in order to accompany his family to Canada. The family settled in Montreal, where his father owned a leather product store, while Vogel worked in an import-export house and drove a taxi while studying.

Robert Vogel died suddenly on April 3rd, 1994. He was then working with Terry Copp on a new work on the Canadian air war. He was survived by a wife and a son.