 Charles Coghlan was educated at home until January 1870, when he was enrolled at the Jesuit St Aidan's College in Grahamstown.He was awarded a bursary to the South African College, Cape Town, where he studied law with the intent of becoming a barrister, but these plans were disrupted by his father's death from dysentery.Short of money, Charles quit university in 1882 and went to work for Paley and Coghlan, the law firm where his eldest brother James was a partner, in Kimberley.