On one occasion in his youth he was jailed for two days for absconding from his cabinet-making apprenticeship in order to play cricket.

He and William Gilbert Rees, W. G. Grace's cousin, added 32 for the second wicket in New South Wales' first innings, the highest partnership of the match.

After his stroke, a benefit concert was held for them at the Prince of Wales Theatre in Sydney.

[5] He remained a keen spectator of interstate cricket for the rest of his life, never missing a match, in Sydney or Melbourne, between New South Wales and Victoria.

Hilliard spent most of his working life as a maker and repairer of cricket bats.