Young was a scottish poet and minister in the Free Church of Scotland; after some years in Scotland, he moved to England which put him in touch with supportive literary circles in London, one of his closest champions being Viola Meynell. During the 1920s and into the early 1930s, YoungÕs friend, the bookseller J. G. Wilson, helped to print five small poetry collections. He converted to Anglicanism and was made a Canon of Chichester. This was followed, in 1952, with the award of the QueenÕs Gold Medal for Poetry. While Young had achieved recognition for his work at last, the 1960s were overshadowed by the deaths of many of his friends.