John Antony Crawford Hugill was born 15 January 1916, the son of Engineer Rear-Admiral R C Hugill. He was educated at George Watson's College, Edinburgh (1923-7), Eastman's School, Southsea (1927-9), Oundle School, Northamptonshire (1929-34) then at Magdalen College Oxford where he obtained a First Class Honours degree in Chemistry. He married Fanny Gore Browne, with whom he had four children. He died in 1987.

During the Second World War, Hugill conducted what he described as "secret Government work on protection against War Gases" (1939-40) before joining the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in 1941 and serving with the Miscellaneous Weapons Division (Admiralty). From 1942-3, Hugill was Assistant Naval Attaché in Lisbon, Portugal. From 1943-5 he served with 30 Assault Unit which was led by Ian Fleming and described as Fleming's "Private Army". The Unit was a group of specially trained commandos who were sent on specific intelligence missions often targeting German specialist equipment. As part of 30 Assault Unit, Hugill landed in Normandy, France, during the D-Day landings. During the campaign, Hugill was awarded the Croix de Guerre, was mentioned in despatches, and won the Distinguished Service Cross for taking the surrender of 280 troops under a Luftwaffe officer at a radio station near Brest. From 1945-6, Hugill was in charge of the Forward Interrogation Unit in Hamburg, Germany.

After the Second World War, Hugill began a commercial career joining the sugar manufacturing company Tate and Lyle in 1946. He was a key figure in the creation of "Mr Cube", the cartoon face of a successful campaign to prevent the Labour government's attempt to nationalise the sugar industry. From 1954-66, Hugill was responsible for Tate and Lyle's West Indian subsidiaries rising to the position of Main Board Director with special responsibilities for European investment and research and development (1961-74). Hugill was Founder and Director General of the World Sugar Research Organisation (1978-84) before retiring in 1984. His publications include: "The Hazard Mesh" (1947), an account of his war service; "No Peace without Spain"; "Sugar and All That", an official history of Tate and Lyle; and "Quadruped Island" (1951) written under the pseudonym Antony Crawford.