Sir Allen William Young

Allen William Young was born on 12 December 1827 at Twickenham. In 1842, he joined the Merchant Navy, later commanding Marlborough between 1853 and 1854 and Adelaide during the Crimean War. In 1857, he was appointed second officer and sailing master of Fox on the British Franklin Search Expedition, 1857-1859 (leader Francis Leopold McClintock), a private expedition sponsored by Jane, Lady Franklin and public subscription to search in the area of King William Island for relics of Sir John Franklin's ill-fated Northwest Passage expedition.

In April 1859, Young set out on a sledge journey, exploring the east, south and west coasts of Prince of Wales Island and discovering McClintock Channel. On his return, he was appointed to the command of Fox on the British North Atlantic Telegraph Expedition in 1860, conducting deep-sea soundings by way of the Faeroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland and Labrador in preparation for a proposed telegraph line between Britain and North America.

After this expedition, he travelled to China to assist Sherard Osborn in equipping the Chinese Navy, later commanding a gunboat during the Taiping rebellion from 1862 to 1864. In 1871, he was appointed commissioner to the Maritime Congress of Naples, later serving as commissioner to the National Aid Society.

In 1875, Young led the British Northwest Passage Expedition, a private venture with the objective of reaching the magnetic pole by way of Baffin Bay and Lancaster Sound and navigating the Northwest Passage in the same season. Setting out from Southampton in Pandora in June 1875, the expedition entered Lancaster Sound in August, later reaching Beechey Island where they examined relics of the Franklin search expeditions. Continuing into Peel Sound, Pandora was finally beset by heavy ice in Franklin Strait with no hope of further progress. He returned to the Canadian Arctic the following year as captain of Pandora on the British Relief Expedition, landing dispatches for George Strong Nares of the British Arctic Expedition, 1875-1876. On his return, he was knighted in 1877, later receiving the C.B. in 1881.

Young made his final voyage to the Arctic in 1882 when he commanded the whaler Hope with instructions to search for Benjamin Leigh Smith's missing expedition which had sailed for Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa in 1881. In August 1882, Young met the expedition at Matochkin Shar on the west coast of Novaya Zemlya, which they had reached by boat after their vessel had been crushed in the ice off Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa. Retiring from active service on his return to England, he died on 20 November 1915 in London.

Published work The search for Sir John Franklin, from the journal of Allen Young J. Griffin London (1875) SPRI Library Shelf (41)91(08)[1857-1859 McClintock], The two voyages of the Pandora in 1875 and 1876 Edward Stanford, London (1879) SPRI Library Shelf (41)91(08)[1875-1876 Young]

From the guide to the Allen Young collection, 1857-1910, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)