Hubert Winthrop Young
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Distinguished Service Order (1919)
Order of El Nahda, 3rd Class (Kingdom of Hejaz) (1920)
Sir Hubert Winthrop Young | |
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| Born | 6 July 1885 Wrexham, Denbighshire, Wales |
| Died | 20 April 1950 (aged 64) |
| Occupations | Soldier, diplomat and colonial governor |
| Awards | Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (1934) Distinguished Service Order (1919) Order of El Nahda, 3rd Class (Kingdom of Hejaz) (1920) |
Major Sir Hubert Winthrop Young, KCMG, DSO (6 July 1885 – 20 April 1950)[1] was an English soldier in British Army and British Indian Army, Liberal Party politician, diplomat and colonial governor.
Born on 6 July 1885, Young was the second son of colonial administrator William Mackworth Young and his second wife, Frances Mary, daughter of Sir Robert Eyles Egerton, KCSI, JP, Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab from 1877 to 1882,[2][3] Sir Robert Egerton was nephew of the 8th and 9th Grey Egerton baronets.[4][5] Gerard's paternal grandfather was Sir George Young, 2nd Baronet.[6] He was educated at Eton before being commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1904.[7][2] After four year he was transferred to the Indian Army as an officer in the 116th Mahrattas.[8] Young served on the North West Frontier becoming an assistant political officer in Mesopotamia during the First World War.[8] He was awarded the DSO for gallantry in Mezerib, Syria in September 1918.[7]
Diplomat
In 1919 Young joined the Foreign Office in London, after three years he was transferred to the Colonial Office as an assistant secretary in the Middle East Department.[1][8] He was later appointed Colonial Secretary at Gibraltar.[8] In 1929 he moved to Iraq and in 1932 was appointed the first Minister of Baghdad.[8] He advocated for the creation of an independent Kurdistan.[9]
After a few months he was appointed Governor of Nyasaland, the first of three governorships:
- Malawi (Nyasaland) - Governor (22 November 1932 to 9 April 1934)
- Northern Rhodesia - Governor (1935–1938)
- Trinidad and Tobago - Governor (8 July 1938 - 1942)
Young had been knighted in 1934 and in 1942 he returned to London where he organised European relief work until he retired in 1945.[8]
He wrote the sympathetic book The Independent Arab, a part-memoir, part-travelogue detailing his diplomatic and military time in the Middle East.
