Mary Hughes
| Dame Mary Hughes GBE |
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| Spouse of the Prime Minister of Australia | |
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In office 27 October 1915 – 9 February 1923 |
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| Preceded by | Dame Mary Cook |
| Succeeded by | Viscountess Bruce |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Mary Ethel Campbell 6 June 1874 Burrandong, New South Wales |
| Died | 2 April 1958 (aged 83) Double Bay, New South Wales |
| Resting place | Macquarie Park Cemetery and Crematorium |
| Spouse(s) | Billy Hughes |
| Children | Helen Hughes (1915–1937) |
Dame Mary Ethel Hughes GBE (née Campbell; 6 June 1874 – 2 April 1958) was the second wife of Billy Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia 1915–1923.
She was born as Mary Ethel Campbell in 1874, in Burrandong, near Wellington, New South Wales, the daughter of Thomas and Mary Ann (née Burton) Campbell, who were graziers. She originally trained as a nurse. On 26 June 1911 at Christ Church, South Yarra, Victoria, Mary Campbell became the second wife of Billy Hughes, an aspiring politician and Attorney-General in the ministry of Andrew Fisher. His first (common law) wife, Elizabeth née Cutts, had died in 1906.
He did not have time for a honeymoon, so he took her on a long drive. Their car crashed where the Sydney-Melbourne road crossed the Sydney-Melbourne railway north of Albury, leading to the crossing being named after Billy Hughes; it was later replaced by the Billy Hughes Bridge.
She became stepmother to Hughes's six children from his first marriage. They had one daughter of their own, Helen (1915-1937), who predeceased her parents.
Mary Hughes accompanied Billy during his parliamentary sessions in Melbourne (then the seat of the federal government) and on domestic and overseas trips as Prime Minister (1916, 1918 and 1921). On the 1918 trip, he was in precarious health, and he wanted her to accompany him in order to look after him should he fall ill. Despite his insistence, officialdom did not permit her to travel on the same warship as him, and she went instead in a separate convoy with baby Helen.
It was during World War I that she became interested in the welfare of Australian servicemen, and she visited camps and hospitals in Britain, France and Australia. Both she and her husband became familiar faces at the Australian Imperial Force headquarters in Horseferry Road, at the ANZAC buffet at Victoria Station, and in hospitals visiting wounded Australian troops.
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