Joseph was born in 1886. His parents were William Hughes (an agricultural labourer) and Sarah Elizabeth Hughes. In 1891, the family lived in Northop High Street. Joseph was the youngest of 4 children. He was 5 and he had a big brother Evan T who was a 13 year old labourer and two eight year old sisters Sarah and Emily who were scholars.

By 1901, the family had moved to live up The Green in Northop and Joseph’s father was dead. It looks as if Joseph was then the main breadwinner, supporting his widowed mother and sister Sarah through his work as a farm labourer (although there was a female lodger who presumably paid rent).

In the 1911 census the family was living in Northop High Street. The household comprised Sarah Elizabeth Hughes a 68 year old widow and two of her grown up children. Sarah Ann Hughes was aged 30 and single – a general servant and Joseph who was 25 , was single and still a farm labourer. 

Joseph joined the army in Flint in March 1916 and served in France from August that year until his death 6 months later. (UK soldiers died in the Great War 1914-19 accessible on www.ancestry.co.uk) and also Joseph’s index card in the Flintshire Roll of Honour at Flintshire County Archive Office in Hawarden.