Young, Cedric J M

Person

Young, Cedric J M

Cedric John Mathison Young was born in Perth on the 4th of June 1890, the elder of two children of Charlotte A. Young (née Conacher) and George P.K. Young, an architect. George P.K. Young had studied for a year in London - architecture under Professor T Roger Smith at University College and drawing under Alphonse Legros at the Slade School – before going into partnership with his father (and Cedric's grandfather) John Young, in a Perth architectural firm.

Cedric was educated at Merchiston Castle School from 1904-1907, and began his apprenticeship in his father's Perth practice on 42 Tay Street. Cedric J.M. Young then attended The Glasgow School of Art from 1909 to 1911 along with his younger brother, Graham C. Young. Both were full-time students of architecture and both resided at 174 Great Western Road, Glasgow, during the course of their studies.

In addition to his coursework, Cedric worked during the holidays in the office of John Burnet & Son. It was whilst working there that he met and married his wife. His son Kenneth Mathison Young was born on the 23rd of November 1910. Upon completion of his studies, in 1911, Cedric returned to working at his father's practice in Perth before leaving Scotland in 1912 to undertake employment in Montreal, Canada, at the firms of E & WS Maxwell and Nobbs & Hyde.

A member of the Territorial Army since 1908, Cedric joined the Black Watch regiment in 1914. During the First World War, Cedric served in France in the Royal Engineers regiment, in which he received the Military Cross, the Victory Medal, the British Medal and the 1915 Star Medal for service during the 1914-18 conflict.

Cedric served until 1920 when he returned to Perth in 1921 to become a partner in his father's architectural firm, newly named G.P.K Young & Son. Later that year, Cedric was admitted to ARIBA under the war exemption scheme. In 1925, Cedric returned to Canada, where he worked at the firm of McCarter & Naime in Vancouver. Whilst there, according to the Dictionary of Scottish Architects, he designed "the details and art work of the Medical-Dental Building and the Marine Building in Vancouver in 1928-30. McCarter & Nairne's design for the Vancouver Exhibition Association has marked Burnetian characteristics, suggesting that he had a hand in it." Cedric is thought to have returned to Scotland around 1930-1931 where he went into partnership with his younger brother, Graham Conacher Young, in the family practice. Around this time, Cedric's son, Kenneth Mathison Young, had also begun working as an assistant at the firm, having studied at the Edinburgh School of Architecture from 1928 until 1931.

When Cedric's father, George P.K. Young passed away on 28th October 1933, Cedric was again in Canada but returned to Scotland thereafter, eventually moving into his parents' house at Union Mount in Perth in 1939-1940. During the Second World War, Cedric re-joined the Black Watch regiment and served with them from 1940-1943 in France, Germany, Egypt and Salonika.

He died on 16th December 1952.

Cedric John Mathison Young is commemorated on The Glasgow School of Art's First World War Roll of Honour.

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Sources: Ancestry.co.uk; The Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture by Peter J M McEwan; The Dictionary of Scottish Architects: http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk; Scotland's People: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk.

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