Quentin Hughes (architect)

James Quentin Hughes (28 February 1920 – 8 May 2004) was an architect and academic. He was a British SAS officer during the Second World War, and was influential in the preservation of Liverpool's Victorian and Edwardian architectural heritage.

James Quentin Hughes was born in Newsham Park, Liverpool on 28 February 1920. He was educated at Rydal School in Colwyn Bay, Wales, and then began his studies at the University of Liverpool School of Architecture in 1937.

On the outbreak of war Hughes volunteered for the Royal Artillery and was posted to 208 Anti-Aircraft Training Regiment before obtaining his commission in 1940. Hughes was posted to Malta with 48/71 D Battery RA, from which his lifelong love of the island and interest in its architecture began.

Following the siege of Malta, in 1942 Hughes joined the newly created 2nd SAS based at Philippeville, Algeria and began carrying out sabotage operations in Italy.

On 12 January 1944 Hughes and four others took off from an American airfield in southern Italy for Operation Pomegranate in support of the forthcoming allied landings at Anzio. The objective of the mission was the destruction of German reconnaissance aircraft at San Egidio. The group was scattered after coming into contact with a German sentry, and although Hughes and the raid commander Major Tony Widdrington found each other, the other members could not be located. The pair carried on with the mission, infiltrating the airfield on the night of 19 January and planting Lewes bombs which when detonated destroyed four Ju88s, two Fieseler Storchs and one Ju52. While defusing their unused bombs one exploded, killing Widdrington and leaving Hughes temporarily blind and concussed. He used his pistol to summon assistance, being captured by the Germans and taken to hospital in Perugia. The accident left Hughes deaf in one ear and blind in one eye for the remainder of his life.

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