Cecil Eldred Hughes was born on 3 December 1875, in London. He was the son of architect and surveyor Eldred Augustus Hughes and Jessie Maud Hughes, and had two brothers, Augustus Edward, who became an architect and Mayor of Marylebone, and Ernest Theodore Cobbett, who became a doctor. Cecil attended Misses Thomson’s Preparatory School in Hove, Brighton, possibly at the same time as Winston Churchill.
Later, while attending University College London from June 1896, Hughes met and formed a lifelong friendship with William Wedgwood Benn, whose father, John Williams Benn, had been a London councillor and Member of Parliament (MP) since 1889. Following in his father's footsteps, William Wedgwood Benn was also elected to Parliament in 1906.
This connection with Benn proved important in Hughes’ life, as Benn served with the East Indies and Egypt Seaplane Squadron as chief observer and intelligence officer, and it seems likely that their friendship facilitated Hughes’ assignment to the squadron. Hughes also joined Benn Brothers publishing as an editor and director.
For his service with the East Indies and Egypt Seaplane Squadron, Hughes was twice Mentioned in Despatches.
A fuller biography can be found as an afterword to Little Gully’s edition of Above and beyond Palestine.
