Steven Hughes was a trauma and orthopaedic surgeon who served with distinction during the Falklands War as regimental medical officer of the 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment (2 Para). He was born on 12 June 1957 in Newport, Gwent, the son of Kenneth Hughes, an engineer in the RAF who later worked in local government, and Sylvia Hughes née Dawson. He attended Gowerton Boys’ Grammar School near Swansea and studied medicine at Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1980. As a student he joined the Territorial Army Parachute Field Ambulance and, in 1977, joined the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was a house surgeon at Charing Cross Hospital and a house physician at King Edward VII Hospital, Windsor. He then attended a postgraduate medical officers’ course, based at Sandhurst, Aldershot and the Royal Army Medical College in London. In January 1982 he joined 2 Para as their regimental medical officer. He was preparing for a six-month tour of Belize, when, on 2 April, Argentinian armed forces launched an invasion of the Falkland Islands. In response, the UK government swiftly arranged for a Task Force of ships to take troops to the south Atlantic and, on 26 April, 2 Para sailed in the *MV Norland*, a ship requisitioned from P and O. On the voyage south, Hughes instructed as many paras as possible on the care of the wounded and arranged for each man to carry some basic medical equipment including intravenous fluid. During the night of 21 May, Hughes landed on the Falklands with his regimental aid post, as part of the first beach assault group. They made their way to the Sussex Mountains, where they established a makeshift base. On 26 May they received orders to move towards Darwin at night. During the march, Hughes fell in the darkness and realised he had broken his fibula: he tightened the laces on his boot to give as much support as possible and limped on. In the early hours of 28 May the battalion was ordered to move towards Goose Green, where the Argentinians had established a garrison. An intense battle raged, with many men wounded and deaths on both sides. By night fall almost the whole of the Goose Green peninsula had been taken and negotiations the next day led to the surrender of the rest of the garrison. During the intense fighting, Hughes treated the injured on the ground and helped evacuate casualties via helicopter. On 3 June he moved on to Bluff Cove by Sea King helicopter and later went on to Fitzroy. Five days later, on 8 June, the *Sir Galahad* and *Sir Tristram* ships were attacked by air off Fitzroy and badly damaged. Hughes helped the troops who had come ashore in a landing craft and then, with others, took the craft back out to the burning wreck of the *Sir Galahad* in the hope of finding more casualties. He successfully rounded up life rafts and survivors. The troops of 2 Parra went on to take Wireless Ridge, close to the capital Port Stanley, and it was here that Hughes learnt of the surrender of the Argentinian forces on 14 June. He was the only medical officer to serve in both land battles and was mentioned in despatches for his bravery. After his return to the UK, he took part in the delayed tour of Belize. In 1984 he was posted to the Cambridge Military Hospital at Aldershot as a senior house officer in general surgery. A year later, he was stationed at the British Military Hospital in Rinteln, Germany, where he was a registrar in surgery and orthopaedics for six months. He retired from the Army in 1986. In civilian life, he gained his FRCS in 1987 and was a senior registrar in orthopaedics in Oxford. He held a fellowship in trauma at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and worked in Australia as a consultant in hand and microsurgery. From 1999 to 2012 he was an orthopaedic consultant with the Heart of England NHS Trust. He then retired from the NHS but continued to practise in Abu Dhabi for several years. Like many of his comrades who had served in the Falklands, Hughes suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. He researched the condition, helped raise funds to support veterans and wrote about his experiences. In 1994 he married Carol Millar, a consultant paediatric anaesthetist. They had a daughter, Amy, and two sons, Jamie and David. Steven Hughes died of liver disease on 4 May 2018 aged just 60.