Dr John (Trevor) Hughes (1928 – 2023)

The college has learned of the death of Emeritus Fellow Dr John (Trevor) Hughes. Trevor was Senior Bursar of Green College in its early years and became Vice Warden in 1983. He went on to become Acting Warden from 1989 to 1990, between the tenures of Lord Walton of Detchant and Sir Crispin Tickell. Trevor became an Emeritus Fellow in 1990.

At college, he is remembered as a longstanding fellow, but perhaps particularly for his role in the national and international appeal he worked on with Founding Warden Sir Richard Doll before the advent of Green College. Richard first wrote to the University Registrar in September 1977 about appointing as a fellow and when he joined the then-new Green College in 1979, Trevor immediately took on the role of Senior Bursar.

Trevor was a consultant neuropathologist at the Radcliffe Infirmary. He wrote a number of medical history books, some of which are in the college library, including one called Memoirs of an Oxford pathologist. He served in a variety of roles, including President of the British Neuropathological Society and President of the Meryon Society, which commemorates the works of English physician Edward Meryon.

Trevor was a valued supporter of Green Templeton and the wider collegiate university. He was recognised on the Vice-Chancellor’s Circle together with his late wife, Catherine Hughes, former Principal of Somerville College. Following Catherine’s death, he married Dr Betty Brownell, a renowned neuropathologist at Frenchay Hospital, Bristol.

Trevor was educated at the University of Manchester as an undergraduate before moving to the University of London and completing his studies at Magdalen College, University of Oxford (DPhil Clinical Medicine, 1964).

Listen to a wide-ranging interview with Trevor Hughes conducted by Derek Hockaday in 2015

Please email PA to the Principal Jo Ostridge if you would like to pass messages or tributes to the family.