HUGHES, (James) Quentin 1920-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born February 28, 1920, in Liverpool, England; died May 8, 2004, in Liverpool, England. Historian, educator, architect, and author. Hughes was a professor of architecture who championed the preservation of buildings in his native Liverpool, as well as writing about his other favorite subject, the island of Malta. Attending Liverpool University in 1939, he soon joined the Royal Artillery in 1941; his love of Malta ironically began while he was fighting on the island in 1942 as part of the Special Air Service. Later, on a dangerous mission in Italy, an explosion wounded Hughes seriously and he was captured by the Germans. Told that he would be executed as soon as he recovered from his wounds, Hughes managed to escape and spent the rest of the war as squadron commander for the 2nd SAS Regiment. He was awarded the Military Cross and Bar for his heroism. With the war over, Hughes returned to his studies, completing a bachelor's in architecture in 1946 at Liverpool and, later, receiving a Ph.D. in 1952 from the University of Leeds. He began his academic career as a lecturer at Leeds before he returned to Liverpool in 1955 as a senior lecturer. Hughes went back to Malta to teach at the Royal University of Malta from 1968 to 1973, becoming its Head of School in 1970. In 1973, he again gravitated to Liverpool and became reader in architecture until retiring in 1984, though he retained the title of honorary research fellow and, in 2000, was named an honorary professor of architecture. A champion of the architecture of Liverpool, Hughes is credited with helping preserve that city's historic buildings and worked closely with the local government to do so. He also published books on the city, including Seaport: Architecture and Townscape in Liverpool (1964; 2nd edition, 1994), Liverpool (1968), and Liverpool: A City of Architecture (1999). But Hughes not only wrote about the architecture in Liverpool, he also contributed to it by designing houses there, as well as in other parts of England. Many more of Hughes's publications were on the subject of Malta, such as The Building of Malta (1956), Fortress: Architecture and Military History in Malta (1969), Malta (1972), Malta: A Guide to the Fortifications (1993), and Malta: The Baroque Island (2003). Additional books by Hughes include Renaissance Architecture (1962), Britain in the Mediterranean and the Defence of Her Naval Stations (1981), Strong As the Rock of Gibraltar (1995), and the autobiographical Who Cares Who Wins? (1998). For his contributions to the island, he received the Malta Order of Merit; he was also named to the Order of the British Empire.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Guardian (London, England), May 17, 2004, p. 19.

Independent (London, England), May 17, 2004, p. 32.

Times (London, England), June 8, 2004, p. 31.