Colour-Sergeant Thomas Hughes

On the 21st of May, 1928, former retired Colour-Sergeant Thomas Hughes of the Royal Scots Fusiliers died in Ardrossan aged 89.

He was born on 25^th January 1839 in Dublin, the second of three known children born to parents Peter Hughes and Sarah Mulhall.  His siblings were Mary, baptised 22 January 1832 and Bridget, baptised 02 April 1845.

He enlisted in the Royal Dublin City Militia in March 1855.  In January 1856 he transferred to the 15^th East Yorkshire who were sent to Gibraltar to await orders for the Crimean War.  The orders never arrived, so his regiment was stood down and they returned to England in July 1857.

He transferred to the Royal Scots Fusiliers on 3^rd May 1859 and was sent to Barbados in the West Indies.  In 1866 his regiment was sent to Ireland to deal with the ‘Fenian Rising’ when the Irish Republican Brotherhood rebelled against British rule.  His regiment remained in Ireland until 1869 when it was sent out to Kurrachee (later Karachi), India.  While on the Indian continent, Thomas Hughes served in Bangalore, Madras and the Andaman Islands.

In January 1876 he returned to Scotland having served in the army for twenty years at that point.  Upon his arrival in Ayr, Colour-Sergeant Hughes was appointed as an instructor, under the command of Colonel McBain.  He later served as an instructor in Paisley and Largs.

On 25^th August 1881 he attended the Edinburgh Review with the Largs Company of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, when Queen Victoria inspected 40,000 Scottish Volunteers at Holyrood Park on a day that became known as the “Wet Review” due to the inclement weather.

Colour-Sergeant Hughes retired from the Royal Scots Fusiliers on 14^th February 1894 with thirty-eight years’ service.  During the Second Boer War (1899-1902) he was recalled and served for a further two years.

When the United Kingdom entered World War One on 4^th August 1914, Lord Kitchener appointed Colour-Sergeant Thomas Hughes, then aged 75, as recruiting officer for the Ardrossan and Saltcoats area, a post he served for two years.

When the Ardrossan Branch of the British Legion was formed on Thursday 3rd April 1924 at Castlecraigs, Ardrossan, Colour-Sergeant Thomas Hughes then aged 85, was the oldest member there and the first person to receive the new British Legion badge.

Thomas Hughes married Mary Anne Farrington, daughter of John Farrington, at St. Nicholas of Myra Roman Catholic Church, Dublin on 10^th September 1865.  They had eight children: Sarah born 1866 Abbey, Paisley; John Patrick born 1868 Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Ireland; Catherine, born 1871 Bangalore, Madras, India; Thomas Joseph, born 1872 Bangalore, Madras, India; James, born 1877 Lochwinnoch; Peter, born 1879 Lochwinnoch; Joseph Angelo, born 1881, 5 Crawford Street, Largs and Charles born 1883 Largs.

Thomas died 21 May 1928, 11.50am at 62 Glasgow Street, Ardrossan, aged 89, and was buried with his wife Mary Anne in Ardrossan Cemetery, Section South B, Lair 183a/b. During his long service of 42 years Colour-Sergeant Thomas Hughes served under three British Sovereigns – Queen Victoria, King Edward VII and King George V.