sketcher, diarist and surgeon, sailed as surgeon on board the Roxburgh Castle , a migrant ship which left Gravesend, England, on 8 April 1861 and arrived at Port Phillip on 6 July, then departed from Victoria for London on 28 August. For the duration of the voyage and while the ship was at anchor in Port Melbourne, Young kept a diary which he titled `Out and home: A trip from England to Australia: A collection of rough pen and pencil memoranda’ (LT ms 7646). The diary, in two volumes, recounts his stay in Melbourne and his travels in rural Victoria and includes over 100 small illustrations in the text, and thirty full-page illustrations mainly in pen-and-ink or pencil with occasional watercolour.
Chiefly landscapes and seascapes, these illustrations are of mediocre standard but are not without charm and topographical interest, especially his pen-and-ink views of Geelong, Castlemaine, Bendigo and Williamstown. The text of his journal, however, is perhaps of greater value. Young wrote with style and an attractive immediacy, was a conscientious and energetic tourist and had medical and other friends in Melbourne who enabled him to visit such institutions as the Melbourne Hospital and Pentridge Prison. During his six-week stay, he travelled to Geelong, Ballarat, Ballan, Yan Yean, Bendigo, Castlemaine and Williamstown and saw and described much of Melbourne.
Young had gained his medical degree at the University of Erlangen, Germany, in 1843 and thereafter lived and practised in London and various English provincial towns. He held memberships and fellowships of numerous medical societies and colleges, including the Royal College of Surgeons, and served as a coroner and surgeon-major. His only recorded publication is a Pamphlet on Perforating Ulcer of the Stomach (1849). At the time of his death, on 4 June 1898, he was living at Hounslow, Middlesex.
- Writers:
- Marshall, Tony
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
