Alexander Young (VC)
{{short description|Recipient of the Victoria Cross}}
{{Use Irish English|date=January 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2014}}
{{Infobox military person
|name= Alexander Young
|image=File:Serg Major Alexander Young VC, Cape Police.jpg
|image_size=
|caption=Young on a cigarette card
|nickname=
|birth_date= {{birth date|df=y|1873|1|27}}
|birth_place= Clarinbridge, County Galway, Ireland{{cite web | url=https://www.angloboerwar.com/medals-and-awards/12-victoria-cross/238-young-alexander | title=Anglo Boer War.com | accessdate=1 March 2013}}
|death_date= {{death date and age|df=y|1916|10|19|1873|1|27}}
|death_place= France
|placeofburial= Thiepval Memorial
|allegiance= United Kingdom
Cape Colony
South Africa
|branch= British Army
South African Army
|serviceyears= 1890–1916
|rank= Lieutenant
|servicenumber=
|unit= 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays)
Cape Police
|commands=
|battles= Reconquest of Sudan
Second Boer War
Bambatha Rebellion
First World War
|awards= Victoria Cross
|relations=
|laterwork=
}}
Alexander Young, VC (27 January 1873 – 19 October 1916) was an Irish-born South African soldier and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
A native of Oranmore, County Galway, Young joined the Queen's Bays on 22 May 1890 at Renmore. He served for a time in India, becoming a riding instructor. He took part in the reconquest of Sudan, and afterwards went to South Africa, joining the Cape Police as an instructor, with the rank of regimental sergeant major, serving in the Second Boer War.{{cite news|title=Lieutenant Alexander Young |url=https://britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001394/19161223/065/0013|date=23 December 1916|access-date=7 July 2024 |work=Army and Navy Gazette (via britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)|page=13}}{{subscription required}}
VC details
Young was 28 years old and a sergeant-major in the Cape Police, South African Forces during the Second Boer War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.
{{quote|Towards the close of the action at Ruiter's Kraal on the 13th August, 1901, Sergeant-Major Young, with a handful of men, rushed some kopjes which were being held by Commandant Erasmus and about 20 Boers. On reaching these kopjes the enemy were seen galloping back to another kopje held by the Boers. Sergeant-Major Young then galloped on some 50 yards ahead of his party and closing with the enemy shot one of them and captured Commandant Erasmus, the latter firing at him three times at point blank range before being taken prisoner.{{London Gazette|issue=27373|page=7221|date=8 November 1901}}}}
Later service
Continuing with the Cape Police, from 1904 Young served on the border with German South West Africa during the Herero Wars, and in 1906 helped suppress the Bambatha Rebellion in Natal.
During the First World War, in 1915 he served with the Natal Light Horse in South West Africa, then in the North African Senussi campaign. Volunteering for service in France, he was commissioned in the South African Scottish Regiment with the rank of lieutenant.{{London Gazette|issue=29453|page=1111|date=25 January 1916|supp=y}} He was killed in action during the Battle of the Somme on 19 October 1916.{{Lives of WWI | id= 4925141 | name= Alexander Young }} His name appears on the Thiepval Memorial in France{{cite news|title=CWGC entry |url=http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1556471 |access-date=7 July 2024|work=}} and St. Nicholas's church, Galway.
The medal
Young's Victoria Cross is held in Lord Ashcroft's VC collection in the Imperial War Museum, London.{{cite web |url=http://www.victoriacross.org.uk/vvashcr2.htm |title=Lord Ashcroft VC collection |accessdate=1 March 2013}}
References
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Category:19th-century Irish people
Category:Irish recipients of the Victoria Cross
Category:South African recipients of the Victoria Cross
Category:Second Boer War recipients of the Victoria Cross
Category:British Army personnel of the Mahdist War
Category:South African military personnel killed in World War I
Category:2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays) soldiers
Category:South African Army officers
Category:Military personnel from County Galway
Category:British people in colonial India