[1] Hughes was born in Ventersburg, Orange Free State[2] on 24 July 1892 and spent the first two years of his life in South Africa, after his father emigrated to take a medical post.

[7]Hughes was heavily decorated during the First World War, and before its end he was awarded the Military Cross, the French Croix de guerre avec palme and was several times Mentioned in Despatches; he was also seriously wounded on three separate occasions.

[4] With the end of the war, Hughes returned to his medical duties, becoming a General Practitioner in Chagford, but remained in the army reserve at the rank of lieutenant.

To aid with the general health of the camp victims, Hughes took control of the local hospital, removing the German patients to treat his new charges.

[4] He also received a second Bar to his DSO, for actions during the attempted relief of Arnhem from the south, earlier in the campaign, where as the most senior surviving officer, he took command of the tanks.

[4] With the end of the war, Hughes took up the position as Commandant of the RAMC depot in Crookham, with his final military post being an Inspector of Training.

[12] In this position he played a prominent role in the administration of the newly created National Health Service, and again in 1952 with the formation of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

[16] Hughes remained President until his death in 1973, and held the post when the Barbarians famously beat the 1973 touring "All Blacks" at the Cardiff Arms Park.

It was Hughes who blocked John Taylor from becoming a Barbarian in the 1973 match, branding him a "Communist" for refusing to face the South African rugby team for Wales during apartheid.

After witnessing the atrocities at Bergen-Belsen, Glyn Hughes was profoundly affected by the experience and became increasingly involved in developing medical protocols for dealing with large-scale emergencies and humanitarian crises.

[20] His work helped lay the groundwork for modern disaster response protocols used by military and civilian medical services alike.

He was an early advocate for what we now recognize as mental health care for soldiers, emphasizing the importance of psychological support for those who had witnessed or been involved in traumatic events.

These contributions, while overshadowed by his more visible role at Belsen, reflect a broader legacy of innovation in medical ethics and disaster response that had a lasting impact on military medicine.