MRCS Eng LSA 1861.
Hughes, of Warrington, studied medicine at the Manchester Royal School of Medicine and after graduating was appointed physician's assistant at MRI. He held this post until 1863 when he was appointed resident medical officer for Chorlton Union Hospital. Hughes was later appointed MOH for Ashton-under-Lyne and medical officer to the Union Workhouse. He was also police surgeon, certifying factory surgeon, and honorary medical officer to Ashton-under-Lyne District Infirmary. Hughes was president of the North Western Association of Medical Officers of Health and of the Society of Certifying Factory Surgeons, and was a member of Manchester Medical Society. He was also a Justice of the Peace for the Borough. Hughes died in 1906. His son William Hugh Hughes (junior) qualified in Edinburgh in 1889 specialising in public health and practiced in Ashton-under-Lyne, taken over his many of his father's positions after his death.