| Young | Alexander | | Sergeant Major | 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 Her | Cape Police |
