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1892 Aug 8. Born Belfast son of a Silk Merchant at 57 Atlantic Avenue, Belfast, the first of four children of silk merchant James Hughes and his wife Annie Emmeline (nee Cruikshank). Educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, by 1911 he was living with his family at West Division, Carrickfergus, and working as a sailor apprentice.
1901 census at 15 Cavehill Rd, Belfast
1911 census . at Carrickfergus, Antrim
1914 MAr 31. The Belfast News-Letter reported that:
Leslie Hughes, The Ingles, Greenisland, was fined 10s and 12s 6d costs for having, on 12th inst., driven a motor car in such a manner as to obstruct a tramcar in Great Victoria Street. Mr. T. A. Cairns prosecuted for Mr. Frank Kerr, and Mr. J. Graham defended. It was stated that the defendant drove the motor car recklessly out of a garage and scraped the front portion of a tramcar. Mr. Graham said defendant denied driving recklessly. It would be more correct to say the tramcar ran into the motor.
1915 Apr 21. Hughes enlisted in the North Irish Horse at Antrim on 21 April 1915 (No.1493). He gave his occupation as "independent".
1915 Sep 22. Landed in France with a reinforcement draft, where he was posted to D Squadron, joining it in the field at Behencourt.
1916 Feb 28 Hughes applied for a commission in the infantry, with a preference for the Royal Irish Rifles. In supporting the application his commanding officer Major Hamilton-Russell wrote:
This candidate has a very fair knowledge of French & has assisted the squadron as interpreter on many occasions.
1916 Sep 22. Hughes returned to the UK for officer training, reporting for duty after a period of leave to No.5 Officer Cadet Battalion, Trinity College, Cambridge, at the beginning of November.
On 1 March 1917 he was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant and posted to the 19th (Reserve) Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles. Two months later he returned to France, where he joined the 8th (Service) Battalion (East Belfast), Royal Irish Rifles.
1917 Jun 7. Hughes was with the battalion at the Battle of Messines. He was severely wounded by a machine gun bullet which entered the right side of his chest, penetrating though to the scapula, also receiving a slight shrapnel wound to his elbow. He was admitted to No.2 Casualty Clearing Station, then No.35 General Base Hospital at Calais, before being evacuated to England on 10 June, where he was admitted to No.1 War Hospital at Reading.
The Ballymena Weekly Telegraph reported news of his injury on 23 June:
... before the war he was a fourth officer on the Head Line, Belfast. He joined the North Irish Horse, from which he went to a cadet unit at Cambridge, being eventually gazetted to a commission in the Rifles, and was sent overseas a month ago. He was shot through the right lung, and was hit in the elbow by shrapnel, but a letter received from him to-day states that he is going on well, and that the shrapnel has been removed from his elbow. The War Office notification of the casualty only reached the family to-day, the wrong party having been originally advised.
1917 July 12. Hughes was transferred to the UVF Hospital at Belfast
1917 Aug 1. Transferred to the UVF Hospital at Gilford, County Down. Later that year he was sent to the Ballykinlar Command Depot, though still unfit for any duty.
1918 Jun 8. Hughes recovered very slowly through 1917 and 1918. On 8 June 1918 he wrote to the War Office seeking a pension, as he had been unfit for duty for over 12 months "and my right arm is still practically useless." A medical board on 22 November 1918 found "there is some limitation of movement of the right shoulder above the horizontal, and some loss of power of the grip of the right hand."
1918 Sep 1. R Irish Rifles. Promoted Lt.
1919 Mar 1. A medical board 9 found him permanently unfit for Class A service, but fit for Class B & C1, and that he should "return to his duties with Agricultural Battalion".
1919 Jan/Mar Married in Taunton to Ida M Collard
1919 Apr 12. He was demobilised on 12 April 1919 and relinquished his commission on 1 September 1921.
1920 Nov 9. Joined ADRIC with service no 999. Posted to Depot Coy. Wife living in Whitehead, Co Antrim
1921 Jan 24 Promoted Section Leader
1921 Mar 19. Posted to F Coy
1921 Jul 12 to 26 Jul on Leave
1921 Nov 11 to 24 Nov on Leave
1922 Jan 17. Discharged on demobilisation of ADRIC
1922 Oct/Dec Son Derek born in Taunton
1928 Sep 21. Emigrates to Canada with wife Ida and son Derek. His mother has remarried and is living in Canada. He is a "Master Stevedore"
1932 Oct 1. The whole family return from Canada to UK. Their UK address is her parents in Taunton
1939 Register. He is with Ida M Hughes, living at 20 Warwick Street , Oxford . He is a Stevedore & Warehouse Manager
1977 Sep Died in Newton Abbot (exact dob)
1997 His widow dies in Torbay