George Young

Sir George Young, 4th Baronet (1872–1952) was a British diplomat, journalist and Ottoman scholar. Early life Sir George Young, known as Georis, was born on 25 October 1872 He was the eldest son of Sir George Young, 3rd Baronet. His siblings were Geoffrey Winthrop Young, Edward Hilton Young and his sister Eacy Young, who died in her early teens.

Diplomatic service Young entered the Diplomatic Service and by 1896 had been posted to Washington. After a period in Athens he was posted, in 1901, to the UK Embassy in Constantinople (Istanbul since 1930). Whilst working there he edited, with the assistance of an archivist and other officials, the Corps de droit ottoman. The work was aimed at "those engaged in administrative or diplomatic affairs, in legal or commercial business, and in literary or scientific research in the Ottoman Empire". which has been widely quoted. Other diplomatic postings also led to books which often reflected the political situation in the various nations, e.g. his publication of "Nationalism and War in the Balkans" (1914) a few years after his 1906 posting as chargé d'affaires in Belgrade and his publication "Portugal" (1917) after he was posted to Lisbon in 1914, as First Secretary. Whilst in Lisbon his was practically a lone voice against encouraging the involvement of Portugal in the First World War.

War service, journalism, Germany and labour politics He left the Diplomatic Service in 1915 He went on to join the Labour Party in 1915 and became a member of its advisory committee on international affairs. He stood as a Labour parliamentary candidate for South Bucks in the general elections of 1923 and 1924 but was unsuccessful on both occasions. which at that time was close to the southern front in the Spanish Civil War. He was a strong supporter of the Popular Front government which had been elected in 1936, and early in 1937 Young was involved in establishing the "University Ambulance Unit", with the intention that it would operate on similar lines to the Friends' Ambulance Unit in which his brother Geoffrey had served during the First World War. The stated aim was to "serve both sides" but it would "be based to begin with on Malaga where the need now is greater". From there the Unit could provide medical assistance and other humanitarian aid to the beleaguered citizens of Malaga and the surrounding area but the Nationalist victory in the Battle of Málaga, which led to the Málaga–Almería road massacre, meant that refugees became the focus of the Unit's work, first in Almeria and then in Murcia. He was also a member of the "International Committee for the Co-ordination of Assistance to Republican Spain" a group whose members were drawn from the Popular Front or had communist associations. He maintained a home in Torremolinos until the end of his life.

Selected publications Corps de Droit Ottoman, 1904 Nationalism and War in the Balkans, 1914 Portugal, 1917 New Germany, 1920 Diplomacy, Old and New, 1921 Constantinople, 1925 Egypt, 1927 Freedom of the Seas, 1928 The Pendulum of Politics, 1930 Tales of Trespass, 1932 The New Spain, 1933 Poor Fred, 1937 Federalism and Freedom, 1942