Peter Hughes was born in York & went to school just outside the City walls. As a child he was a keen bird & wildlife watcher & would spend hours on the local ings & moors observing wildlife. This led him to decide to be a vet by the age of seven.
Six years training at Cambridge University allowed him to fulfil his ambition. He first worked in a large practice in Devon dealing with dairy cattle, small animals & a few horses. After two years there he & another fellow Cambridge graduate, Bob Mercer, set up their own practice in Essex. Mercer & Hughes flourished & soon had three surgeries covering an area around Saffron Walden, Great Dunmow & Stansted manned by a total of six vets.
Peter specialised in equine veterinary medicine but all the vets worked with small animals. His particular interests included plastic reconstructive surgery & Koi carp. During this time he was on the committee of the BSAVA & was heavily involved in the local Round Table helping to raise lots of money for local charities.
He is a very keen photographer & owned his first camera, a Kodak Brownie box camera, at the age of eight. He is also a keen golfer & sailor & kept a 35 foot yacht on the River Orwell.
Peter & Val were married in 1970 & have three children. Bethan is a GP in Bury St Edmunds & Katie is a linguist married to a Foreign Office diplomat living at present in Argentina. Gavin studied American history at Sussex University & at the University of Texas in Austin & now works as a project & sales manager in London.
The veterinary practice was passed on to the junior partners when Bob & Peter retired together after 32 years in 2006. It still bears the name of Mercer & Hughes. Peter & Val sold their Old Vicarage in north Essex & retired to Suffolk to be near their four grandchildren. They also bought a house here in the SW of France fulfilling a lifetime's ambition.
Retirement should mean having more spare time! Peter is very busy building, gardening, playing golf & practising photography. His interest in wine, good food & computers means that he always has lots to do.
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| Peter on his balcony with a view |
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