Serving with the Royal Air Force (RAF), he was credited with as many as seventeen aerial victories during the Battle of Britain, before being killed in action in September 1940.

Known for his practice of attacking his targets at extremely close range, Hughes is generally thought to have died after his Spitfire was struck by flying debris from a German bomber that he had just shot down.

He also grew to love the landscape of the local Monaro district in the shadow of the Snowy Mountains, which he described as "unrivalled in the magnificence and grandeur of its beauty".

[4] Hughes was educated at Cooma Public School until age twelve, when the family moved to Haberfield in Sydney; his father was by then working as a labourer.

[3] He left after eight months to take up employment at Saunders' Jewellers in George Street, Sydney, and enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) on 20 January 1936.

[8] Training as an air cadet at RAAF Point Cook near Melbourne, Hughes learnt to fly in de Havilland Moths before progressing to Westland Wapitis in the middle of the year.

[9] A practical joker who bridled under RAAF discipline, his euphoria during his first solo on 11 March 1936 was such that he "went mad, whistled, sang and almost jumped for joy".

[7][12] Under a pre-war arrangement between the British and Australian governments, he volunteered for transfer to the Royal Air Force (RAF), and sailed for the United Kingdom in January 1937.

234 Squadron was equipped with Blenheims, Fairey Battles and Gloster Gauntlets; it began re-arming with Supermarine Spitfires in March 1940 and was operational two months later.

[22] The commanding officer, Squadron Leader Richard Barnett, rarely flew, and Hughes assumed responsibility for overseeing conversion to the Spitfire.

[5][29] A shared claim for a Ju 88 on 27 July could not be confirmed as destroyed; after a chase over the water at heights as low as 50 feet (15 m), the German escaped, despite being struck in the engines and cockpit, and was credited to the section as "damaged".

[23][37] By now the fighting was intensifying over southern England, and the squadron relocated from St Eval to RAF Middle Wallop, Hampshire, on 14 August.

[5][38] On 15 August, in one of the costliest engagements of the Battle of Britain, known thereafter to the Luftwaffe as "Black Thursday", Hughes claimed victories (one of them shared) over two Messerschmitt Bf 110s.

[42] He had a narrow escape on the 16th after his second victory of the day, when he chased a quartet of Junkers Ju 87s and had his tailplane shot up from behind by another Bf 109; he dived and forced the German to overshoot, then broke off having exhausted his ammunition firing at his former attacker.

In the pub with Kay and his squadron mates that evening, Hughes jokingly told his wife, "In case of accidents make sure you marry again.

[47] Hughes was killed in action on the evening of 7 September 1940, after he intercepted a Dornier Do 17 bomber taking part in a large-scale attack on London.

He apparently bailed out, but his parachute failed to open; his body was found in a garden on Main Road, Sundridge, not far from the wreck of his Spitfire.

Further speculation suggested that he was the victim of friendly fire from another British fighter attacking the same Dornier, or was struck by German bullets from a Bf 109.

[65] News of his son's marriage came as "a complete surprise" to Percy Hughes, who only learned of his daughter-in-law's existence from the Australian Air Board's casualty letter.

[66] Having married three more times after Hughes's death, Kay died on 28 June 1983 and, in accordance with her wishes, her ashes were buried with her first husband, whose headstone was amended to read "In loving memory of his wife Kathleen.

"[67] Hughes was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) on 22 October 1940 for his "skill and determination" as a flight commander and "gallantry in his attacks on the enemy"; Squadron Leader O'Brien had recommended the decoration a week before their deaths.

[71] His name appears on the Battle of Britain Roll of Honour in Westminster Abbey, and on supplementary panel 12 in the Commemorative Area of the Australian War Memorial (AWM), Canberra.

[74] Kay had given the medals to her sisters-in-law to pass on to Percy in the 1950s and, after being lost during an Anzac Day parade in the 1960s, they went through several family members' hands before turning up in the safe of the Kiama Country Women's Association; they were donated to the AWM in 1990.

[75] On 7 September 2005, Charles Hall's sons dedicated a plaque in Hughes's honour at the house where he fell in Main Road, Sundridge; Bob Doe attended, expressing his thanks for "an Australian who came to help us when we needed him".