Descendants of former Carlton President David Young have answered the club’s call to help build a profile of a successful business figure and devoted family man forced to relinquish his duties to the club he loved in support of an ailing daughter he loved even more.
Roger Young, whose father was David Young’s nephew, made contact after discovering that Carlton sought information and outstanding portrait photographs of four of its 21 presidents to have served since the formation of the VFL - David Shaw, John Urquhart, John McInerney and of course, Young.
Roger supplied a rare image of his great uncle then referred this correspondent to 94 year-old Linda Harrison of Narre Warren, who vividly remembered “my lovely Uncle David”.
David Young, the son of David sen. of Panbride, Angus in Scotland, and Harriet Cowell of St. Paul, Deptford in the English county of Kent, was born near (of all places) Princes Park in Toxteth, just a few kilometres south-east of Liverpool, in 1881. According to Linda, David’s parents had relocated there to pursue their business interests, as owners of a number of grocery shops and a warehouse on Great Howard Street in Bootle on Merseyside to supply those shops.
“The family were food merchants,” Linda said. “They had general stores throughout Liverpool at which you could buy bacon, fruit and the like.”
David, his siblings, parents and maternal grandmother all lived in a glorious home at 28 Mannering Road. Linda, one of the few living persons to have known David Young, said: “I’ve twice visited the house in Liverpool in which he and his family lived. It was a lovely three storey-house which still stands in the most beautiful part of Liverpool”.
“The Youngs, you see, were very wealthy people. They had a maid, a valet, servants and all,” Linda said.
David was one of 12 children, six of whom survived beyond infancy. He followed his oldest brother John Lawrence, sisters Barbara Ann and Mary (Linda’s mother) and preceded his brothers Albert and Robert.
According to Linda, David had initially sought to become a doctor, “but he was then sent to boarding school and didn’t like it . . . so they all came out here”.
Linda believed that all members of the Young family bar the oldest son John Lawrence (who set sail for America and established a drug store in New Jersey), relocated to Australia to further their fortunes.
On November 14, 1912, 890 passengers - amongst them David, his wife Gertrude and their two year-old daughter Clarice - disembarked the steamship “Indrapura” in Melbourne. The Argus correspondent reported that so pleased were the good people of Victoria to receive these future willing workers that the then Prime Minister Andrew Fisher and six of his cabinet members boarded the ship by barge and breakfasted with them as they steamed up the Yarra to Victoria Dock.
The Youngs soon settled in Hawthorn, in Christobel Crescent near Glenferrie Railway station, within walking distance of youngest sibling Bob’s meat emporium in Glenferrie Road. Their second child, another daughter Alma, was born, and in time members of the clan branched out into other areas of Melbourne’s east.
The two Davids senior and junior established a delicatessen near the Balaclava junction in Caulfield - one of a number of retail premises under the family’s keep. In time, David acquired ownership of the Hotel Astor - now managed by the former Carlton premiership player “Percy” Jones - on the corner of Lygon and Elgin Streets.
It was then that Young’s territorial links with the football club were forged. As Linda explained: “I believe a lot of the Carlton people went there”.
“These were great days,” she said. “I can remember uncle David picking me up and taking me out to the hotel, but funnily enough I don’t remember him taking me to the footy.”
David assumed the Carlton Presidency from Ald. John Gardiner in 1925 after members voted for a complete overhaul of the club’s committee of management, including a new treasurer and secretary - at a time when the financial position was far from encouraging. During that season, Maurie Beasy relinquished the captaincy for his inability to attend training, and no less than four coaches were appointed - Messrs “Paddy” Scanlan (who was unable to secure a clearance from South Melbourne to fulfil his duties), “Paddy” O’Brien, the stand-in coach Ray Brew and Jim Caldwell.
These were difficult times for the new President. In August 1926, the year his mother died, David made the long trek to Broken Hill to represent his club at the funeral of the Carlton player Les Witto, who tragically succumbed to tetanus infection after breaking his arm in a match against Geelong at Princes Park. Through David, the committee established a fund to assist Les Witto’s mother, whose son had been her sole means of support. Almost £700 was raised for Mrs Witto, with the assistance of each of the VFL’s member clubs and the League itself.
But under David’s watch at Princes Park, Carlton’s match receipts grew, together with its membership and player payments, and as David himself observed in the club’s 1926 annual report: “In view of the heavy load of debt shouldered by your Committee at the beginning of the 1925 season, the above facts and figures are truly remarkable”.
Of further note, David made a significant donation of £50 to a fund established for the players’ end-of-season trip - by way of the SS “Nairana” - for a fortnight’s holiday in Tasmania which took in a match against Newtown. In part, this trip was organised to help take the players’ minds away from the Witto tragedy.
David’s benevolent disposition saw him rewarded with life governorship of the Royal Melbourne Hospital, placed at the disposal of Carlton by the VFL. David’s dedication to duty was duly noted by the then secretary Patrick Cain, who wrote in the 1927 annual report: “The smooth working of the Committee and Sub-Committee during the past three years is in no small measure due to his efforts, and your Committee hopes that he will be spared to continue as President for some time to come”.
Alas, it was not to be.
In November 1927, David advised the Committee that his family would be taking an extended tour of the continent mainly for the benefit of his younger daughter Alma. Alma, then a teenage girl, had developed heart problems caused by rhematic fever suffered as a child.
Though he was re-elected President in January of ’28, David did not resume duties until May of that year, as he cared for the health of his little girl. “On resuming, Mr. Young again carried out the duties appertaining to his high office in his usual enthusiastic and dignified manner, and worthily upheld the prestige of the club on all occasions,” Cain wrote.
But on November 1, 1928, and after four years at the helm, David Young could no longer go on. For Alma’s benefit he tended his resignation as Carlton President - a resignation accepted by members of the Committee with extreme regret.
David’s tenure ended with Carlton’s membership at an all-time record of 7350, gate receipts the highest of any VFL club for the third year running, the team again contesting finals and plans afoot for the construction of a new grandstand which would later earn the moniker of another Carlton president Robert Heatley.
Faced with the reality of relocating permanently, David sold his interests in the Hotel Astor for a considerable sum, together with an hotel he’d acquired at Nagambie.
“In Sydney, David diversified his interests,” Linda said. “Branching in to property development, he became involved in the construction of the first round of multi-level high-density housing by the water in Rose Bay. He owned houses in Ashfield and he acquired flats at Bondi and Elizabeth Bay on Sydney Harbor. Prized tenants included the radio and television celebrity couple Bob and Dolly Dyer who lived in the penthouse suite.”
David and his wife settled in the affluent suburb of Vaucluse. “They had a gorgeous place on the hill there,” said Linda. “One side of it was glass from which you could view one end of the harbour to the other.”
David lived quietly in retirement in Vaucluse and according to New South Wales records died in 1959 - four years after the death of his beloved youngest daughter Alma (although Linda maintains the girl passed away at some point in the 1930s). David’s wife Gertrude died in 1965, but it is not known what became of the Youngs other daughter Clarice.
In an interesting post script to this story, David’s great nephew Roger Young also revealed that his maternal great grandfather was the Carlton footballer William Nicholas Lacey, the game’s “Champion of the Colony” in 1874.
Lacey died in 1927 during David Young’s Carlton presidency.
• The Carlton Football Club is seeking stories and images of the following Carlton Presidents - Arthur Hewitt Shaw (1896-1900), Henry Bourne Higgins (1904), WF Evans (1905-06), John Urquhart (1907-09) and John McInerney (1910-11). Those who can help can contact the club on 9389 6241.
