Born in Hartlepool in the fortieth year of Queen Victoria's reign, she lived under the rule of five more monarchs and 24 UK Prime Ministers. Hughes grew up in Middlesbrough in Yorkshire, where her father ran a music shop. She worked as a teacher in a primary school from the age of thirteen and married Noel Hughes, a retired army captain, after she retired aged 63. They remained married until Noel's death in 1979 at the age of 88. Her father, Herbert Milburn, died at age 93 and her mother, Annie, at 92. She had three younger brothers, Herbert, Henry and Reginald. Herbert died at 58 and Reginald at 62. She remained in robust health into extreme old age and achieved public recognition for her longevity, including tea with then-UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in 1985, whom she jokingly admonished against cuddling up to her, as Hughes was a Labour Party supporter. Thatcher replied by saying "Oh well, never mind, let's have a cup of tea." However, Hughes admitted to personally liking Thatcher, and described the Prime Minister as "A very nice woman." For her one-hundred and tenth birthday, she flew on Concorde to New York City, one of only two supercentenarian air passengers ever recorded. She stayed at The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for four days on an all-expenses paid visit and met then-Mayor Ed Koch. She became the oldest person in the United Kingdom when Scotland's Kate Begbie died in 1988, and broke the national longevity record, held until then by Anna Eliza Williams, in early-1992. Hughes lived in her own home in Marske-by-the-Sea until 1991, when she moved to a nursing home in Redcar due to her becoming too frail to look after herself. She also spent her final years in a wheelchair, though she remained mentally alert and sharp to the end of her life. She was described by relatives as "extremely domineering, outspoken, and sharp; but also as friendly and witty." Hughes was never interviewed by demographers or other aging researchers, though the historian Peter Laslett went through the documentation pertaining to her case.
