Hughes’ fam­i­ly moved to Swan­sea when he around two years old. He is some­times con­fused with the John Hughes who wrote the tune Cwm Rhon­dda.

After fol­lowing his us­u­al du­ties at the works on Monday 15th June 1914, John Hughes at night drove an em­ploy­ee, who had a piece of steel lodged in his hand, from Mor­ris­ton, to the Hos­pi­tal. It was late when he re­tired, in his usu­al cheer­ful mood, ap­par­ent­ly in the best of health, but he soon be­came ill and his death at 6.45am on Tuesday morn­ing, the 16th June 1914, was caused by a clot of blood on the brain. He died at his re­si­dence No. 3 Stock­well Villas, Mount Plea­sant, Swan­sea. He left a wi­dow and three small child­ren. All his friends were ex­treme­ly grieved to hear of his un­time­ly death at the age of 42. His death de­prived the Duff­ryn Works of a high­ly ca­pa­ble man­ag­er. John’s fresh col­our and ro­bust ap­pear­ance gen­er­al­ly flat­tered, on­ly to deceive. His sad de­mise came as a great shock to the in­hab­i­tants of Mor­ris­ton, where he was per­son­al­ly known to al­most ev­er­y­one.

He died at num­ber 3 Stockwell Villas, Swan­sea, on the 16th June 1914, aged forty-two, and was bur­ied in the cemetery of Caer­sa­lem New­ydd Welsh Bap­tist Chapel in Tre­bo­eth, with his par­ents.

On Sa­turday 20th June 1914, there was a large and rep­re­sen­ta­tive ga­ther­ing at the fun­er­al which took place on Sa­tur­day 20th June 1914 at Caer­sa­lem New­ydd Welsh Bap­tist Cha­pel bur­i­al ground, at 4 pm. Prior to the de­par­ture of the cor­tege from his house, the well know hymn Ymadownaf a’r ba­bell was sung by the Phil­a­del­phia choir, con­duct­ed by John Hum­phries. A short ser­vice was held at the house, when the Rev­er­end W. Evans, Cross Keys and the Rev­er­end B. O. James, Cross Hands of­fi­ci­at­ed.

As the pro­cess­ion wend­ed its way tow­ards the grave­side Calon Lân one of his best known com­po­si­tions was sung with much feel­ing. An im­pres­sive ser­vice was held at Caer­sa­lem Cha­pel, where the Rev­er­end E. G. Hughes (Ra­ven­hill), D. B. Richards (Brynhyfryd), D. Thom­as (Lan­dore), D. Pryse Will­iams (Phil­a­del­phia) and D. Price (Be­thes­da) paid their last trib­ute to the de­part­ed. The hymn, Di­lyn Ie­su was al­so sung.

The ser­vice at the grave­side was ve­ry im­pres­sive, and the massed choir feel­ing­ly ren­dered Crugy­her. The last rites were per­formed by the Rev­er­end D. James (Mor­ri­ston) and J. Da­vies (Myn­ydd­bach). The mourn­ers were Mrs. John Hughes (wi­dow), Mrs. Hughes (mo­ther), Mrs. Bes­sie and May Hughes (daugh­ters). Other mourn­ers were rep­re­sent­a­tives of the Dyff­ryn Works, Mor­ris­ton, of which the deceased was for some years Man­ag­er; the works own­er, W. H. Ed­wards (pro­pri­e­tor). Amongst the mem­bers of the gen­er­al public was Le­on Ver­mont (Lon­don), Coun­cil­lors Da­vid Mat­thews J.P. John Lew­is Swan­sea. Em­ploy­ees of the Dyff­ryn Works Mor­ris­ton, acted as bear­ers.

It is wor­thy of note that ma­ny of the hymn tunes sung at the fun­er­al were of John Hughes own com­po­si­tion. On Sun­day af­ter­noon and ev­en­ing sym­pa­the­tic ref­er­enc­es were made at the Ta­ber­na­cle Cha­pel Mor­ris­ton, of the loss sus­tained by the un­time­ly death of John Hughes and as a last trib­ute two of his most pop­u­lar com­po­sitions Dil­yn Ie­su and Ca­lon Lân were ren­dered.

1. Calon Lân
2. Dilyn Ie­su