YOUNG, ALEXANDER,
Sergeant-Major, was born on 27 January 1873, at Ballinana, Clarinbridge,
County Galway, son of William and Annie Young, and younger brother of Joseph
Young, JP, of Corrib House, Galway. He was educated at the Model School
Galway. On 22 May, 1890, he joined the Queen's Bays at Renmore, where his
superior horsemanship quickly brought him to notice. He served for a time
in India, and became a Riding Instructor. In the Sudanese Campaign, under
Kitchener, he first saw active service. He was for a time at Shorncliffe,
and was transferred to the Cape Police as Instructor. Two other soldiers
from Galway have described him in these days: Private James O'Heir, late of
the 2nd Connaught Rangers, said of Lieutenant A Young, VC, who fell fighting
in France, "God bless his memory; he was a gallant hero, and may he and
every brave soldier who fought for his King and country, and to whom the men
who loved him have said their last 'Good-night', rest in peace! I knew him
as a boy in Galway; I knew his father and mother, and all his relatives. I
first saw him abroad in Egypt. He was a Rough-Riding Sergeant-Major of the
2nd Dragoon Guards, and the battalion in which I served was placed under him
for a course of mounted infantry drill. He was a wonderful horseman, and
had the reputation of being the best rough-rider in the British Army, and
also in Egypt; and he was a brave and high-minded man, distinguished by the
natural traits of generous, open-hearted good nature, which popularized him
with everyone, of every station in life, and endeared him especially to the
Irish people then in Egypt ... All the Irish soldiers in Egypt were very
proud that one of their countrymen should hold the high position of first
horseman, and at the same time maintain in so high and unblemished a manner
the national reputation for bravery, generosity and the manly virtues which
often distinguish the Irish character under the stress and trial of the
soldier's life. Mr Young was a central figure in all Egyptian tournaments
and public amusements, in which exhibitions of horsemanship took a foremost
place. In every tournament in Cairo in which he competed Mr Young was the
victor, and ringing Irish cheers always welcomed him to the arena, and
enthusiastic outbursts cheered his prowess, and inspired his genius for
daring feats of horsemanship to wonderful achievements which excelled
anything ever beheld there on these great public occasions. He never knew
defeat in any contests of horsemanship! ... Not only every Irishman, but
every Britisher was proud of Mr Young on these occasions. To the Irish
private soldier he was always very friendly, and particularly so to a
Galwayman, who could always reckon on his kind-hearted friendship; and, with
the generosity which was characteristic of him on every occasion, he
contributed the money prizes won by him to the Soldiers' Mess. At
Aldershot, in 1897, Mr Young performed wonderful feats of horsemanship
before Queen Victoria, and later before King Edward. Mr Young's control
over a horse was supreme. The wild horses lassoed in the Arabian desert he
broke in and trained to become the most manageable of animals, in his own
way. It was usual with the rough-rider of the period to train the wild
horses with sand-bags and dummy men on their backs, but Mr Young would not
use these things, mounting the horse's back and remaining there, despite
every effort of the animal to throw him, or even to roll over or dislodge
him. On such an occasion Mr Young declared his maxim: 'I will either break
him in, or he will break my neck'. Mr Young left the 2nd Dragoon Guards in
Egypt for the Headquarters in Canterbury, and from there to India, to teach
horse-riding; and, after completing his period there, he returned to
Canterbury in charge of the Riding School. There he got a severe kick from
a horse, and shortly after he retired from the Army. He then came back to
Galway, and resided here with his sister; but again, after about six months,
he went out and joined the Cape Mounted Police, with the rank of
Sergeant-Major. That was about two months before the outbreak of the South
African War, when the authorities, knowing his extensive experience of the
country, and of the Boers, put him in charge of a force over a large
district. It was while in Basutoland he won the VC, by his gallantry in a
skirmish in which he risked his life under very dangerous circumstances. He
was the only Galwayman who won the VC in the South African War". Also
Private O'Heir said: "Mr Young held the highest record as a rough-rider in
the British Army: he competed for this honour with many men, including the
best riders of the 17th and 21st Lancers and the 18th Hussars, and with
Sergeant Bishop, a notorious rough-rider of the Egyptian Cavalry; but he
beat all these very easily, and in no one did he find a close competitor,
except in Mr Michael Kelly, a native of the town of Kilkenny. At Aldershot
Mr Young won the Army Championship in a contest in which it was necessary to
ride with a threepenny-piece on each stirrup-iron under the ball of the
foot. Lieutenant Colonel Lambert, of Castle Lambert, was in command of the
2nd Dragoon Guard (Queen's Bays) while Mr Young was in the regiment in
Egypt; and everyone there knew that he greatly regretted the loss of so
gallant a soldier when Mr Young retired from that corps". Stephen O'Heir,
late of the Connaught Rangers, brother of the above, Said: "I went through a
course of Mounted Infantry Drill in 1896, as a Private in the Connaught
Rangers, attached to Mr Young's regiment at Cairo. When I was put under him
in the school he told me that I should very soon be nearly as good a rider
as himself if I could claim to be a Galwayman ... I always admired his easy
and graceful seat on horseback. No man seemed to be able to handle a horse
like him. A dozen Arab ponies were brought in wild from the desert, and I
watched him breaking them in. One threw itself on the ground, and Mr Young
still sat on him till he sprang to his feet, the rider on his back ... I
last saw him in South Africa 1901, at a place called Burgess Dorp, and then
he went down to Capetown, and I saw him no more until one day I beheld him
in Galway ... It was a great pleasure to Galwaymen in the Army to see him
the victor. No matter who contested them with him, the laurels still
remained on the brow of Mr Young ... In the Bengal Presidency it has always
been a pleasure to Galwaymen to read of his daring feats of horsemanship,
which were always so excellent of achievement. His name was famous, and he
was spoken of as ' The Terror'. Alexander Young was at Williamstown when
the South African War broke out, and he "was with Gatacre on that tragic
night when, against the advice of his staff, he tried to outflank the Boers
by a movement between the hills. Young was wounded in the leg, but he
managed to ride back to hospital. He was within a few yards of Captain
Montmorency, VC, when that gallant officer fell mortally wounded in the
attack on Schooman's Copje". For his services in this campaign he received
the Queen's Medal with clasps; the King's Medal with clasps, and was awarded
the Victoria Cross [London Gazette, 18 November 1901]: "Alexander Young,
Sergeant-Major, Cape Police. 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
twenty 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". After the war Sergeant
Major Young returned to his position with the Cape Mounted Police, and left
them once more in 1906, for service in the native rebellion, when he was
wounded for the second time, and received a medal. A soldier's letter says:
"Lieutenant Young did for the Germans in a week what they had failed to do
for themselves in three years. The Herero Rebellion broke out in German
territory, and Lieutenant Young was serving in the Cape Police on the
border, and although the Germans quelled the rebellion they could not
capture its leader. But Young did so, and was specially decorated by the
Kaiser. This decoration he publicly burned at Capetown during the war with
Germany". Later he served in the Zululand Rebellion, when he was once more
wounded. For four years after this he farmed in Natal. The 'Connacht
Tribune' thus writes about the fair-haired, blue-eyed, fresh-complexioned
Irishman: "There is always a breezy manliness about the man who has lived a
strenuous, open-air life. Vast fields and plains, the freedom of the
highroad, an occasional brush with danger, create a breadth of outlook and
a natural zest for life as it used to be lived before civilization imposed
its restrictions and its duties. Since 1890, when Alexander Young took the
Queen's shilling at Renmore, and entered upon a new life as a Trooper in the
Queen's Bays, he has lived after the manner of a soldier and a sportsman ...
For four years . . . he 'ran' a farm in Natal. ' After such a life as I
hare led,' said he, with a smile, 'a man is only good for farming or
soldiering'. The present war once more found him joining the colours, when
De Wet's Rebellion broke out, this time as Regimental Sergeant-Major of the
Cape Mounted Police. He served under Commandant Britz, who is to-day (27
November 1915) taking the new column to German East Africa with Colonel
Royston. The story of that march across the arid desert to Windhoek reads
like a romance. The desert, with its poisoned wells (the Germans there, as
elsewhere, outraged the rules of warfare), presented greater terrors than
any brush with the enemy. After serving under Botha until the outbreak was
successfully accounted for, Lieutenant Young for the first time took on the
responsibilities of commissioned rank. He was transferred and promoted into
the 4th South African Mounted Rifles as 1st Lieutenant, and once more
crossed the Veldt and fought under General Smuts in German East Africa until
the Hun outpost in that part of the world was demolished and their flag
hauled down. The Germans blew up every rail, and forced marches across the
desert were resorted to. Nevertheless, he (Lieutenant Young) said, the men
were cheerful—as fine a lot of soldiers as one ever served with. The
younger men found it hard to stand up against the conditions imposed. After
Gibeon, where the desert ends, had been passed, however, there was plenty of
sport and wild game, and, moreover, victory was near, so that life took on
brighter tints". Alexander Young told the writer of this most interesting
article that: "The men got demobilized at Durban, after a march that ranks
as one of the finest in history. We had occasional scraps with the enemy,
but the long marches were the worst part of it all, and it was this that
brought about such speedy victory. The Dutch South Africans are loyal. The
rebellion was got up by a few agitators such as one will find in every
country. When those men they led learned the real acts, they surrendered at
every opportunity they could get". After demobilization, when General
Smuts called for 10,000 volunteers for the British Forces in France, he was
one of the first to come forward, and was accepted by Colonel Jones for a
commission in the South African Scottish, and came to England with them. It
was at this time that Lieutenant Young revisited his old home. The South
African Scottish were then camped near Aldershot, "whose bivouac", said the
'Connacht Tribune' of 27 November 1915, "very soon will be in the lines
where danger lies, and where the battle for freedom and civilization is
being waged. The South African Scottish will very likely eat their plum
puddings (if they are lucky enough to get any) in the trenches. What has
touched Lieutenant Young most during his visit to Galway is the numerous
friendly handshakes from the mothers of men at the front. 'You meet them
everywhere", he said, 'and there is no doubting their sincerity'. The manly
heart of the man who won the soldier's blue riband has its human side". The
'Galway Express' then takes up its parable and describes how Lieutenant
Young paid a visit to its office while he was staying with his brother in
his native town. "He was full of hope, and spoke to us of some of his
extraordinary experiences during the South African War". Although
Lieutenant Young had been in the Colonies for many years, he had many
friends in Galway, and during his visit to Galway a few weeks before he left
for the front he gained popularity among all classes. "Shortly afterwards",
says the 'Galway Express' of 28 October 1916, "the young Galway hero was
with his regiment on board a transport for the land of the Pharaohs, under
Sir John Maxwell. He fought in Egypt against the Soudanese and Turks, who
were quickly accounted for, their last lap in this campaign taking them
among the ferocious Senussi tribe, who captured the crew of the SS Tara a
year ago, after the vessel was sunk by a German submarine; the recapture of
the crew by motor transports being one of the epic incidents of the war.
Lieutenant Young then returned to England again, but once more found himself
sailing for the sunny coast of France in time to participate in the 'Big
Push' on 1 July last. He was but fifteen days in the Somme fight, when he
received a wound at what Tommy calls 'The Devil's Wood,' and he was
invalided home to England". A Press Association War Special runs as
follows: "A special correspondent of Reuter's Agency, who has visited one of
the South African hospitals, and conversed with a number of wounded men who
have just returned from France, writes: 'Now that the fact that the South
African Brigade has been engaged in the British offensive has been published
in the Press and passed by the Censor, and that the South African Casualties
have appeared in the list, there can be no harm in dwelling on some of the
deeds of gallantry performed by men from the Union. The first batch of
South African wounded have reached London. All were in the cheeriest mood.
About 60 per cent, had been through the South-West African Campaign. Many
had served in Egypt, while a number of veterans had fought also in the
Matabele, Bechuana and Boer Wars. They declare that the South-West African
Campaign was a thirsty jaunt, while the fighting in France was hell. All
the wounded were enthusiastic about the magnificent progress of our troops.
One stalwart South African engineer, with shattered hand, who got his VC in
the Boer War, was engaged in repairing signalling apparatus, when he saw
lying under the enemy fire a French officer with a shattered leg. In spite
of the terrific fire he picked up the officer and carried hin out of the
danger-zone, whereupon the officer took the Legion of Honour from his tunic,
and pinned it on his gallant rescuer, who himself had his right hand
shattered by a 'whiz-bang'". After being wounded this time Lieutenant Young
was in hospital at Brighton for some time, and returned to the firing-line
in September, and", says the 'Galway Express', with the hardy boys from the
veldt, now well inured to war, he kept the Hun on the move until the 19th of
this month" (September), "when he was killed. But he and his men had fought
the stern and noble fight of men fighting for an ideal,
with Private Lynch, Loughrea, who fought under Lieutenant Young in
two continents and was wounded on the same day as he, and he spoke in the
most enthusiastic and eulogistic terms of the gallant officer who now lies
beneath the cold soil of an alien clime. "As a soldier and a man, too much
cannot be said of Lieutenant Young; gallant to rashness, sincere to a fault,
honourable in all his dealings, imbued with a fraternal spirit which makes
man and officer one, he has sealed with his life's blood a career that all
may envy and few rival. On Saturday, October 28, 1916, the Galway Urban
Council adjourned their weekly meeting in sympathy with "their valued
brother member, a distinguished Galwayman and an esteemed member of their
Council" (Mr Joseph S Young, JP), on the death of his brother, Lieutenant A
Young, VC. The 'Connacht Tribune' of Saturday, 28 October 1916, said:
"There has been but one Galway VC, and, in the free, colonial parlance that
he loved, he has 'gone West'. He has died as he has lived — on the
battlefield, facing the foe. What more fitting grave than on the rolling
plains of Flanders, where he has gone to rest amongst so many of the manly,
fearless souls? No flower of the forest that has been 'wide awae' had
in its fulness attained more manly, robust bloom than poor Sandy Young. His
was a different outlook on life to that of most of us. It was not
circumscribed by narrow boundaries or hemmed in by local institutions.
Begot of the plains, it was wide and spacious and natural and free as they.
No alloy of cheap conventionalism, no tinsel of empty form, held it to the
things that do not matter. It brushed all these tilings aside and looked
out on life as it is. Neither alloy of pettiness nor self-created idealism
hindered its gaze. So much of the man, whose grave a little flower-woven
cross marks in Flanders to-day. Of his life? His manly character, his
great good nature were evolved from his life. Know these, and you perceive
that he had communed with nature and faced danger without flinching. The
great test of a man is that he lives in a town amongst minor interests, and
yet preserves a bigness of outlook, and does not lose touch with the
essentials. A greater test is that a man wins through hard experience in
the battle of life, and does not achieve the crabbed soul of the cynic.
Young stood this test mentally, as he stood every physical test that duty
put on him. At home he learned horsemanship; abroad he excelled in it.
From the Queen's Bays to the Cape Mounted Police; from that to the South
African Scottish. And in between, he ran a bachelor's bungalow and a farm
in Natal. When the war trumpets called, he obeyed, for he had learned to
obey and to be obeyed. I can imagine the kilted the platoon trudging back
to duty over the mud-flats, having paid the tribute of brave men's tears to
the robust manliness that had ceased to lead them to action ... He was of
striking contrast to his brother, and of a different school—the school that
far-flung freedom and rude and natural conditions beget. His faith in
humanity remained undimmed by the flight of time and soul-revealing
experience; his own humanity was held in the secure chalice of that faith.
He was not of those who achieve greatness by scholarly gifts, or by stolid
steadfastness. He won his qualities from the free kingdoms of far-flung
plains; he wore them without consciousness. It is good in these days to see
the candour of a manly heart revealed. It is thrice sad to think that now
that heart is stilled. Such hearts are needed amongst the pioneers that
will rebuild the shattered fabric of the kingdoms of this world after the
war. But now this noble spirit roams in other kingdoms; the body that bore
it has for its kingdom a little, little grave. 'May the flowers of the
forest press lightly o'er!'".
