Hughes was one of nine children born to William (a tin-plate worker) and Mary (née Jones) Hughes. He was baptised at St. Giles Church in Wrexham on 5 January 1831. Hughes became a shoemaker until he joined the 13th Light Dragoons, part of the Light Brigade, at Liverpool on 1 November 1852. He joined his regiment at Hounslow as 1506 Private Hughes, and in 1854 he sailed with them from Portsmouth to the Crimea.