McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
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H3A 0C9
Person
Young, George, 1872-1952
1872-1952
Sir George Young, 4th Baronet, was born on October 25, 1872, in Cookham, Berkshire, England, son of Sir George Young (1837-1930), a civil servant, reformer, administrator, and scholar.
He was a British diplomat, author, journalist, and professor. He was educated at Eton College and universities in France, Germany, and Russia. In 1889, Young entered the Diplomatic Service in an unusually varied series of postings like Attaché, Chargé d'Affaires, expert delegate and First Secretary, in Athens, Constantinople, Belgrade, Brussels, Madrid, Washington, and Lisbon. From 1915 to 1918, he served in an Admiralty Intelligence Unit. In 1918, he enlisted in the Honorable Artillery Company. He was a Daily News correspondent in Berlin (1918-1919), and, in 1920, he went to Moscow for the Daily Herald, where he met the Labour Party delegation. Joining the Labour Party in 1915, he became a member of its Advisory Committee on International Affairs. Young was an unsuccessful parliamentary candidate for South Bucks in 1923 and 1924. He later lived in Spain and during the Civil War was active on behalf of Spanish Medical Aid. He inherited his baronetcy in 1930. He taught political science and international law in several US colleges and universities. He was also a Professor of Portuguese and Examiner in Ottoman Law at London University. He published several books, e.g., "Portugal Old and New" (1917), “Diplomacy Old and New" (1921), and "Egypt" (1927). He also published under the pseudonym Yegor Yegorevitsch, e.g., "Trespassing on the Tsar" (1896).
In 1904, he married Jessie Helen Ilbert (1880–1946). He died on September 26, 1952, in Sonning, Berkshire, England.