Edward Hilton Young, 1st Baron Kennet, was born on March 20, 1879, in London, England.

He was a British politician and writer. He was educated at Eton, University College London, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was President of the Union Society and editor of the Cambridge Review. He was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1904 and practised in the King's Bench Division and on the Oxford Circuit. Due to his illness, he gave up the legal career to pursue politics and journalism, becoming assistant editor of the Economist (1908-1910), financial editor of the Morning Post (1910-1914) and London correspondent of the New York Times financial supplement. In 1912, he published “Foreign Companies and Other Corporations” and, in 1915, “The System of National Finance,” which remained the standard textbook until 1939. In 1914, Young joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and, in 1918, he lost his right arm in the attack on the Mole at Zeebrugge. For his service, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, Distinguished Service Cross and Bar, French Croix de Guerre, and the Serbian Silver Medal. He published a book of war memoirs, "By Sea and Land" (1920). Young was elected Member of Parliament for Norwich (1915-1923, 1924-1929) and served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury (1921–1922). He was the British Representative at the Hague Conference on International Finance (1922) and went on financial missions for the British Government to India (1920), Poland (1924), and Iraq (1925, 1930). In 1926, he left the Liberals to join the Conservative Party and was Secretary for Overseas Trade in the National Government and Minister of Health (1931-1935). In 1935, he retired from politics and was created Baron Kennet of the Dene. Young was also chairman and director of many commercial and financial corporations.

In 1922, he married Edith Agnes Kathleen Bruce (1878–1947). He died on July 11, 1960, in Wiltshire, Wilts, England.