Born at Tintern, 5 May 1860, the eighth child and fifth son of Henry William Hughes, electrical engineer, of Castle Ford, Chepstow, and Mary Jenkins, his wife. His father was concerned with the laying of the early Atlantic cable. He received his early education at a private school in Cheltenham and entered Sherborne in the Easter term 1872, being in the school house. He left in 1878 after playing in the School XI, went to King's College Hospital, and afterwards visited Paris and Vienna. At King's College Hospital he was house surgeon, clinical ophthalmic assistant, assistant house accoucheur, and physician's obstetric assistant. He then settled in general practice in Onslow Gardens, South Kensington, and acted as surgeon to the Gordon Hospital for Fistula, to St George's and St James's Dispensary, and to the Farringdon Dispensary. He was also for a short time registrar and anaesthetist at the Evelina Hospital for Children. He retired from practice in 1905, and married on 12 July 1906 Florence White, who survived him with a daughter. He died on 17 February 1935, and was buried at Heathfield, Sussex.