A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Young, George (b)
YOUNG. (Retired Commander, 1846. f-p., 18; h-p., 29.)
George Young, born 14 Dec. 1785, is son of Alex. Young, Esq., M.D., Surgeon R.N. (1762), who was on board the Ramillies 74 when that ship foundered on her passage home from the West Indies 21 Sept. 1782, was afterwards in the Royal Sovereign in Lord Howe’s action 1 June, 1794, and died about 1818. He is brother of Capt. Wm. Young, R.M. (who fought in Sir Rich. Strachan’s action and died in 1843), and of the present Retired Commander Alex. Young, R,N.; brother-in-law of Lieut.-Colonel Thos. Stevens, R.M., of John Cunningham, Esq., Surgeon R.N. (1796), and of Rich. Haig, Esq., Purser and Paymaster R.N.; and uncle of Lieut. W. G. J. Cunningham, R.N., and of H. D. P. Cunningham, Esq., Purser and Paymaster R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, in 1800, as Midshipman, on board the Vryheid prison-ship, Lieut.-Commander John Maston, lying in the river Medway, where he remained until the peace of Amiens. He served next, from March, 1863, until his return to England in July, 1808, in the Sceptre 74, Capts. Arch. Collingwood Dickson and Joseph Bingham, on the Channel and East India stations, part of the time as Master’s Mate; and on 22 Sept. in the latter year he was made Lieutenant into the Vesuvius bomb, Capt. Alex. Cunningham, in the Baltic. His succeeding appointments were, as Senior Lieutenant – 24 Feb. 1809, to the Bermuda 10, Capt. A. Cunningham, part of the force employed in the ensuing expedition to the Walcheren – 16 Jan. 1810, to the Lion 64, Capt. Henry Heathcote, in which ship, after conveying to Persia their Excellencies Sir Gore Ouseley and Mirza Abdul Hassan, the Persian Ambassador, he assisted at the reduction of Java – 26 Jan. 1812, to the Scipion 74, Capts. Jas. Johnstone and H. Heathcote, with the latter of whom he returned to England from the Cape of Good Hope, and then proceeded to the Mediterranean, where he took part in Sir Edw. Pellew’s partial actions with the French Toulon fleet 5 Nov. 1813 and 13 Feb. 1814 – and 14 Dec. 1814 (he had been in personal command of the Scipion at Portsmouth from 12 Oct. until 5 Nov. preceding), to the Snap 12, Capt. Geo. King, in the North Sea. In Jan. 1816 the Snap was paid off. Mr. Young had then, as we have shown, been nearly seven years a First-Lieutenant; yet was he refused that promotion to which the responsible position he had so long held seemed certainly to entitle him. He was subsequently, from 3 Nov. 1841 until 1844, employed as an Agent for Transports afloat. He accepted the rank he now holds 27 Jan. 1846.
Commander Young was lately a Magistrate for the borough of Queen’s Ferry, co. Linlithgow, and was for 11 years Superintendent of the south side of the Queen’s Ferry Passage. He married, in 1816, Helen, daughter of Jas. Murray, Esq., of Queen’s Ferry, and sister of the late Major Robt. Murray, of the 30th Regt., and the late Capt. Thos. Murray, of the 26th, by whom he has issue four sons and two daughters. One of his sons, James Murray Young, is in the merchant-service; his eldest daughter, Mary, is the wife of Alex. Rait, Esq., Adjutant of the 16th Native Infantry.