Obituaries Australia

Edmund Young, n.d.

from Australasian Pastoralists' Review, 15 May 1897

The news of the painfully sudden death of so well known a man as Mr. Edmund Mackenzie Young, at Sydney, on the 23rd ult., came as a great shock in financial and pastoral circles, especially in Sydney and Melbourne, where perhaps the deceased gentleman was better known than in the other colonies. On the previous Saturday (17th) Mr. Young attended the A.J.C. meeting at Randwick, where he caught a chill which rapidly developed into something worse, and, as just stated, he expired within a week of the seizure.

Mr. Young was a native of Coleraine, County Derry, where his father carried on business as a merchant, and was born in the year 1838. He was educated at the local academy, and in 1853 entered the service of the Belfast Banking Company at its Coleraine branch. In the course of 1856, having completed his articles, he was appointed accountant. In 1857 Mr. Young resigned his connection with the Belfast Banking Company with the view of pushing his fortunes in the Australian colonies. Landing in Melbourne in June of that year he, within a few days of his arrival, entered the service of the Union Bank of Australia, then under the management of Mr. James Blackwood. In February, 1859, Mr. Young was offered and accepted the post of assistant accountant in the National Bank of Australasia, was subsequently in charge of the bank during an interregnum, and then accountant. Mr. Young in September, 1863, succeeded Mr. William Wright, who had been appointed manager of the London office, as manager in South Australia. In 1870 Mr. Young succeeded Mr. Wright as general manager of the bank. Before his departure from Adelaide he was entertained at a public banquet, attended by the leading colonists of South Australia, and presented with complimentary testimonials, both on parchment and in silver. Mr. Young's connection with the National Bank of Australasia was finally severed some time afterwards, and in 1873 Mr. Young proceeded to Europe to enjoy a well-earned holiday. In 1874 he assumed the management of the Australian Mortgage Land and Finance Company, Melbourne, an appointment offered him soon after reaching London. Mr. Young was next promoted to the office of general manager of the company in London, and left Melbourne in February, 1881. Prior to his departure he was entertained at the Australian Club by Mr. James McBain, M.L.C.; and a banquet attended by some sixty gentleman connected with squatting was given in his honour at Gunsler's Cafe on the evening before his departure. The chair was occupied by Mr. W. Wilson, who, in proposing the health of Mr. Young, characterised him as a man of great financial power. He had been called upon to take the lead in several great financial undertakings, but he never displayed his genius more than when he undertook the management of the Australian Mortgage, Land and Finance Co. Mr. Young, was also afforded a pleasing and graceful evidence of the appreciation of the courtesy and kindness which characterised his intercourse with his officers during his seven years' management in the colonies. On the eve of his departure Mr. Young was presented with an album containing the portraits of all the officers of the company in Melbourne, Sydney, and Geelong, the first pages of the book being occupied with a beautifully illuminated and engrossed address, surmounted with medallion etchings of the company's offices in Australia.

Mr. Young, since his appointment as general manager of the Australian Mortgage Land and Finance Company, had divided his time pretty equally between London and the colonies. He was in Australia at the time of the great maritime strike in 1890, and was chiefly instrumental in establishing the Pastoralists' Union organisation in the southern colonies. In recognition of his services in this direction the general council of the Pastoralists' Union of New South Wales has placed the following resolution on record: — "That this council regrets the sudden death of the late E. M. Young, and hereby records its appreciation of the great services rendered by the deceased gentleman in connection with the establishment of the Pastoralists' Union organisation." Mr. Young was interested in station properties in Queensland and New South Wales, and had a small interest in South Australia. He leaves a widow and four children—two sons and two daughters. The elder son, who holds a commission in the 16th Lancers, now stationed in Umballa, India, held an appointment in Sydney some years ago as A.D.C. on the vice-regal staff. The other son, Charles, has a station at Myall Creek, Inverell, N.S.W. He was at his father's bedside when he expired. The widow and her two daughters—one of them married—reside in London, at Palace Gate, Kensington.