Edwin Sawle Hughes (26 February 1850[1] – 22 October 1926), commonly referred to as E. S. Hughes, was a auctioneer and naturalist in South Australia. He was prominent in the Literary Societies movement of the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries.
Hughes was born in North Adelaide, a son of Town Clerk William Alexander Hughes (died 1892).[2] He was educated at Whinham's school and at J. L. Young's Adelaide Educational Institution, and on leaving was employed in the South Australian Treasury. 18 months later he started working for Daniel Wilkie Melvin, a King William Street auctioneer, leaving to establish his own business as auctioneer and valuer at the Federal Mart, Grenfell Street.
Hughes was
Hughes married Wilhelmina Melvin Whiting (1852–1931)[a] on 10 August 1875.[5] They had two sons:
His brother[6] William Alexander Hughes (1855–1943) was a prize-winning student at AEI, Adelaide manager of South British Insurance Co. Ltd.[7]