Editing Sam Hughes (section)

==Early life==
Hughes was born January 8, 1853, at Solina near [[Bowmanville, Ontario|Bowmanville]] in what was then [[Canada West]]. He was a son of John Hughes from [[County Tyrone]], Ireland, and Caroline (Laughlin) Hughes, a Canadian descended from [[Huguenots]] and [[Ulster Scots people|Ulster Scots]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Halsey |first=Francis Whiting |title =History of the World War |publisher =Funk & Wagnalls Company |volume =Ten |date =1920 |location =New York |page =147 }}</ref> He was educated in [[Durham County, Ontario]] and later attended the [[Toronto Normal School]] and the [[University of Toronto]]. In 1866 he joined the [[45th West Durham Battalion of Infantry]] and served during the [[Fenian raids]] in the 1860s and 1870s.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Capon|first1=Alan|title=His Faults Lie Gently: The Incredible Sam Hughes|url=https://archive.org/details/hisfaultsliegent0000capo|url-access=registration|date=1969|publisher=F. W. Hall|location=Lindsay, Ontario|page=[https://archive.org/details/hisfaultsliegent0000capo/page/20 20]}}</ref> Throughout his life, Hughes was very involved in the militia, attending all of the drill practice sessions, and taking up shooting with a rifle in his spare time to improve his aim.{{sfn|Haycock|1986|p=13}} A superb shot with a rifle, Hughes was active in gun clubs and ultimately became president of the Dominion Rifle Association.{{sfn|Haycock|1986|p=4}} Hughes liked to see himself as embodying the Victorian values of hard work, self discipline, strength and manliness.{{sfn|Cook|2010|p=18}} Tall, muscular, and broad-shouldered, Hughes excelled at sports, being especially talented at lacrosse.{{sfn|Cook|2010|p=15-16}} He later claimed, in the British [[Who's Who (UK)|''Who's Who'']], to have "personally offered to raise" Canadian contingents for service in "the [[Anglo-Egyptian War (1882)|Egyptian]] and [[Mahdist War|Sudanese]] campaigns, the [[Second Anglo-Afghan War|Afghan Frontier War]], and the [[First Boer War|Transvaal War]]".<ref name=www>{{cite book|title=Who Was Who, 1916–1928|year=1947|publisher=A and C Black|page=528}} Note the order in which they are quoted is not chronological.</ref>

At the age of 20, he married his first wife, Caroline Preston, who died a year later.{{sfn|Cook|2010|p=15}} Subsequently, he married Mary Burk, and the new couple soon moved to Toronto.{{sfn|Cook|2010|p=15}} He was a teacher from 1875 to 1885 at the Toronto Collegiate Institute (now [[Jarvis Collegiate]]), where he was noted for his eccentricities such as his habit of chewing on his chalk when delivering his lectures.{{sfn|Cook|2010|p=15}} Hughes abandoned teaching as he had trouble supporting a wife and three children on his salary while teaching offered little prospect of promotion.{{sfn|Haycock|1986|p=13}} In 1885, he moved his family to [[Lindsay, Ontario|Lindsay]], where he had bought ''The Victoria Warder'', the local newspaper. He was the paper's publisher from 1885 to 1897.