Studio portrait of Major Wilfred Selwyn Kent Hughes MC, Australian Light Horse from Toorak, ...

Studio portrait of Major Wilfred Selwyn Kent Hughes MC, Australian Light Horse from Toorak, Victoria. A 19 year old student prior to enlisting on 17 August 1914 as a private with service number 60, he embarked for overseas service with B Company, 7th Battalion from Melbourne aboard HMAT Hororata (A20) on 19 October 1914. He served at Gallipoli where he was wounded in action on 19 June and after receiving medical treatment in a hospital ship, returned to his unit four days later. After being promoted to sergeant, he was appointed a lieutenant and then promoted to captain and was Mentioned in Despatches (MID) on three separate occasions. While continuing to serve in the Middle East, he was awarded the Military Cross (MC) and promoted to major. At the end of hostilities he sailed to England where he entered Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and resigned his commission on 30 January 1920. He ran in the hurdles at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp. After returning to Australia he entered politics and became a Member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1927. He served in the Second World War from 13 June 1940 until 29 August 1946 during which time he was taken prisoner of war in Singapore, was promoted to colonel and awarded an OBE. He became a Federal Member of Parliament in 1949 and served as the Australian Minister for the Interior and for Works and as Chairman of the Organising Committee for the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. He was Knighted in 1957. Sir Wilfred Selwyn Kent Hughes died on 31 July 1970 in Melbourne.