Hughes was a squire who turned his hand to restoration and became a self-taught heraldic sculptor. Among Sir David’s many monuments was the 400-year-old house of his mother’s family in Wilburton, Cambridgeshire, which he restored, plus many artefacts such as his bronze of Christ, a memorial for his cousin, Beauchamp Pell, in St Peter’s Church, Wilburton. Hughes was educated at Oundle School and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he read French and Russian. For 11 years he was in the export team at Pye Unicam, selling scientific instruments to the Eastern Bloc. In 1970 he succeeded his father, the 13th baronet, leaving Pye three years later when Beauchamp Pell invited him, his wife and their four sons to live at the family home, The Berristead, which had been tenanted, provided they restored it.