Born at Sydney, New South Wales, on 25 January 1864, the fourth child of Samuel Terry Hughes and Charlotte Keck, his wife. He entered Malvern College in the third term of 1880, when the Rev Thomas Cruttwell was head master, and remained there until 1882. He then proceeded to St Bartholomew's Hospital, and served as house surgeon under Henry Power at the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital. He returned to Sydney in 1895, became ophthalmic surgeon to Lewisham Hospital, and obtained a large practice as an ophthalmic surgeon. He married Christina Brydon Scott, who survived him with two sons, and died at Sydney on 7 July 1935 and was buried at Gore Hill.