Thomas Hughes was born in Coravoo near Castleblayney in 1885. The keen horseman moved to England for a short time and, like so many Irishmen of the time, enlisted in the 6th Batalion of the Connaught Rangers of the British Army at the height of the First World war in 1915.
His actions on the 6th September 1916 during the horrific Battle of the Somme won the Monaghan man a much-coveted Victoris Cross for bravery. Thomas' medal is now on proud display at the Monaghan County Museum in the Peace Campus.
Zoe Tunney spoke to museum curator, Liam Bradley, who explained the medal's journey back to Monaghan like the one Thomas took during and after the Great War is a complex one:
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