chazwicke
09-19-2006, 05:34 PM
This is from a posting Jim Dorsch posted on DC-Beer:
Subject: OBITUARY: John Young: Britain's oldest brewery chairman
OBITUARY: John Young: Britain´s oldest brewery chairman
John Young, who died last night (Sunday 17 September 2006) after a
long and courageous battle against cancer, was, at 85, by far the
oldest and longest serving chairman in the British brewing industry.
Mr John, as he was known at the family-controlled brewery, Young´s of
Wandsworth, south London, was the great-great-grandson of Charles
Allen Young, one of two businessmen who took over the 16th-century
Ram Brewery in 1831.
John joined the company in 1954 after distinguished war service as a
fighter pilot with the Fleet Air Arm and a spell in merchant
shipping.
He became chairman of the brewery in 1962, when his father, William
Allen Young, retired, and quickly became known for his innovative, if
sometimes eccentric, approach to business. The company´s annual
meetings became lavish and legendary events with the chairman wearing
such trappings as boxing gloves or a beekeeper´s hat to emphasise a
specific point, though the events were scaled down in recent years.
John Young, a firm believer in employee participation in the
business, put into effect his father´s idea of establishing one of
the country´s first profit-sharing trusts. He displayed a visionary
instinct in pioneering family-friendly pubs by opening up children´s
rooms at a time when young people were generally unwelcome in
licensed premises. He also set up a Beer Squad to deliver Young´s
ales to people´s homes and introduced the first four-pint cans in the
industry.
But his most successful brainwave was a decision, against all
contemporary trends and advice, to promote traditional draught beer
instead of the keg beers that most brewers were heavily supporting in
the 1960s. The ploy paid off and Young´s sales rocketed well before
the foundation of the Campaign for Real Ale in 1971.
John Allen Young was born at Winchester on 7 August 1921, the eldest
of four sons of William Allen Young and Joan Barrow Simonds, a member
of the family that owned the Simonds brewery in Reading, which
eventually became part of Courage.
He was educated at the Nautical College, Pangbourne, Berkshire, and -
either side of the war - at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where
he graduated with an honours degree in economics.
In the war, he flew fighter planes from aircraft carriers in
Operation Pedestal at the relief of Malta, and later during the North
Africa landings and in the Far East. He was mentioned in despatches,
as commanding officer of 888 Squadron, after the surrender of the
Japanese in Singapore.
He left the Fleet Air Arm as a lieutenant commander in 1947 and
started a career in shipping with the Runciman and Moor lines, which
led him to meeting his Belgian wife, Yvonne Lieutenant, while he was
based in Antwerp. They married in 1951 and spent fifty-one loving and
happy years together. They moved to England shortly after their
marriage, first to Newcastle upon Tyne and finally to Wisborough
Green in West Sussex after John and his brothers had been summoned to
work at the brewery.
Besides his service to the brewing industry, John Young was a
tireless worker for charities, most notably, from 1972, as a member
of the board of the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases (later the
National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery) in Bloomsbury. He
became chairman of the governors at the hospital in 1982 and was
later chairman of its development foundation, which raised millions
of pounds to build new wards and to buy state-of-the-art equipment.
He worked closely with the hospital´s first patron, Diana, Princess
of Wales, until her death in 1997. Among many other charitable roles,
he was also a governor of the National Society for Epilepsy, of which
Princess Diana was a staunch supporter.
Mr John´s royal connections extended to the Queen, who visited
Young´s when the company celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1981,
and the Queen Mother, who famously pulled a pint of Young´s Special
and drank most of it, in a Young´s pub six years later and visited
the brewery only months before she died in 2002. The Prince of Wales
and the Earl of Wessex emulated their grandmother by drawing beer in
Young´s houses. John Young was in constant contact with the Royal
Mews through a shared love and employment of horses.
He was created CBE in 1975 in recognition of his work both in brewing
and for charity. He became a freeman of the City of London in 1986
and, in 1992, he was made an honorary freeman of Wandsworth for "long
and outstanding service" to the borough, particularly for "his most
generous and unequalled support for charitable causes and voluntary
organisations in Wandsworth and the constant interest which he
maintains and actively demonstrates in all aspects of the local
community".
He was a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron, a keen musician, sailor
and swimmer, and a champion of heavy horses, employing at one time 24
black Shires in the Victorian stables at the brewery, which still
house ten horses for daily deliveries to local pubs. He was president
of the Shire Horse Society from 1963 to 1964, of the London Harness
Horse Parade Society from 1957 to 1968, and of the Greater London
Horse Show from 1972 to 1974. He was once credited with saving the
Shire as a breed of horse, and lived to see six of Young´s Shires
pulling the Lord Mayor´s coach on its annual procession through the
streets of the City of London every year from 1998.
In recent years, he had been much concerned by the unpalatable fact
that the Ram Brewery, which is the oldest in Britain, was woefully
inefficient and holding back the company´s overall profitability.
After a lengthy feasibility study, begun in 2003, it was announced in
May this year that the site was to be sold for redevelopment and that
brewing would be transferred to a new company in Bedford owned
jointly by Young´s and Charles Wells, the Bedford brewers. He had
insisted throughout that when it came to the crunch, his head would
rule his heart, but his support for the closure of a brewery that had
been in production on the same site since 1581 was tinged with great
sadness. Poignantly, his death comes in the week when Young´s beers
are being brewed for the last time at Wandsworth, though Young´s will
continue as an independent public limited company, running more than
220 pubs in the south of England.
John Young worked way beyond any normal person´s expectation of
retirement and continued until a year or so ago to play a hands-on
role in the day-to-day running of the company. His style was a
charismatic mixture of autocracy and benevolence. Even in his old
age, his brain was razor sharp and he had a forensic eye and ear for
detail. His generosity was unparalleled. He made large donations to
deserving causes and was the saviour of many an employee or friend
down on his luck. He sent out, or personally delivered in the case of
Young´s publicans, more than two thousand Christmas cards every year
and would never forget the birthday of loyal employees and, in many
cases, their children.
He was bilingual in English and French, which was the language he
always spoke to his wife and, when they were younger, his children.
He was also ambidextrous and wrote almost all of his business and
personal letters with a black felt-tip pen, usually with his left
hand but at times with his right. His eyesight was such that he could
read without glasses well into his eighties.
His last appearance in public, when he insisted on chairing the
company´s annual general meeting in July, barely two months before he
died, was an occasion of heroic proportions. He stood, unsteadily and
clearly frail, at the rostrum to defend his board´s decision to sell
the brewery site but had to be helped into a chair to field questions
from the floor. He received rapturous applause, both when he had
finished dealing with the questions and when the meeting ended. He
was physically and mentally drained at the end of it but had won over
a potentially hostile gathering of shareholders.
John Young leaves a son, James, who is deputy chairman of Young´s,
and a daughter, Ilse, who lives in the United States. His wife Yvonne
died in 2002.
Picture: John Young at the opening of the Boathouse in Putney in 2004
Further information from Michael Hardman: 01737 766345
Pictures of John Young, past and present, are available on request
Source: British Guild of Beer Writers, 18 September 2006 OBITUARY
Subject: OBITUARY: John Young: Britain's oldest brewery chairman
OBITUARY: John Young: Britain´s oldest brewery chairman
John Young, who died last night (Sunday 17 September 2006) after a
long and courageous battle against cancer, was, at 85, by far the
oldest and longest serving chairman in the British brewing industry.
Mr John, as he was known at the family-controlled brewery, Young´s of
Wandsworth, south London, was the great-great-grandson of Charles
Allen Young, one of two businessmen who took over the 16th-century
Ram Brewery in 1831.
John joined the company in 1954 after distinguished war service as a
fighter pilot with the Fleet Air Arm and a spell in merchant
shipping.
He became chairman of the brewery in 1962, when his father, William
Allen Young, retired, and quickly became known for his innovative, if
sometimes eccentric, approach to business. The company´s annual
meetings became lavish and legendary events with the chairman wearing
such trappings as boxing gloves or a beekeeper´s hat to emphasise a
specific point, though the events were scaled down in recent years.
John Young, a firm believer in employee participation in the
business, put into effect his father´s idea of establishing one of
the country´s first profit-sharing trusts. He displayed a visionary
instinct in pioneering family-friendly pubs by opening up children´s
rooms at a time when young people were generally unwelcome in
licensed premises. He also set up a Beer Squad to deliver Young´s
ales to people´s homes and introduced the first four-pint cans in the
industry.
But his most successful brainwave was a decision, against all
contemporary trends and advice, to promote traditional draught beer
instead of the keg beers that most brewers were heavily supporting in
the 1960s. The ploy paid off and Young´s sales rocketed well before
the foundation of the Campaign for Real Ale in 1971.
John Allen Young was born at Winchester on 7 August 1921, the eldest
of four sons of William Allen Young and Joan Barrow Simonds, a member
of the family that owned the Simonds brewery in Reading, which
eventually became part of Courage.
He was educated at the Nautical College, Pangbourne, Berkshire, and -
either side of the war - at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where
he graduated with an honours degree in economics.
In the war, he flew fighter planes from aircraft carriers in
Operation Pedestal at the relief of Malta, and later during the North
Africa landings and in the Far East. He was mentioned in despatches,
as commanding officer of 888 Squadron, after the surrender of the
Japanese in Singapore.
He left the Fleet Air Arm as a lieutenant commander in 1947 and
started a career in shipping with the Runciman and Moor lines, which
led him to meeting his Belgian wife, Yvonne Lieutenant, while he was
based in Antwerp. They married in 1951 and spent fifty-one loving and
happy years together. They moved to England shortly after their
marriage, first to Newcastle upon Tyne and finally to Wisborough
Green in West Sussex after John and his brothers had been summoned to
work at the brewery.
Besides his service to the brewing industry, John Young was a
tireless worker for charities, most notably, from 1972, as a member
of the board of the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases (later the
National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery) in Bloomsbury. He
became chairman of the governors at the hospital in 1982 and was
later chairman of its development foundation, which raised millions
of pounds to build new wards and to buy state-of-the-art equipment.
He worked closely with the hospital´s first patron, Diana, Princess
of Wales, until her death in 1997. Among many other charitable roles,
he was also a governor of the National Society for Epilepsy, of which
Princess Diana was a staunch supporter.
Mr John´s royal connections extended to the Queen, who visited
Young´s when the company celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1981,
and the Queen Mother, who famously pulled a pint of Young´s Special
and drank most of it, in a Young´s pub six years later and visited
the brewery only months before she died in 2002. The Prince of Wales
and the Earl of Wessex emulated their grandmother by drawing beer in
Young´s houses. John Young was in constant contact with the Royal
Mews through a shared love and employment of horses.
He was created CBE in 1975 in recognition of his work both in brewing
and for charity. He became a freeman of the City of London in 1986
and, in 1992, he was made an honorary freeman of Wandsworth for "long
and outstanding service" to the borough, particularly for "his most
generous and unequalled support for charitable causes and voluntary
organisations in Wandsworth and the constant interest which he
maintains and actively demonstrates in all aspects of the local
community".
He was a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron, a keen musician, sailor
and swimmer, and a champion of heavy horses, employing at one time 24
black Shires in the Victorian stables at the brewery, which still
house ten horses for daily deliveries to local pubs. He was president
of the Shire Horse Society from 1963 to 1964, of the London Harness
Horse Parade Society from 1957 to 1968, and of the Greater London
Horse Show from 1972 to 1974. He was once credited with saving the
Shire as a breed of horse, and lived to see six of Young´s Shires
pulling the Lord Mayor´s coach on its annual procession through the
streets of the City of London every year from 1998.
In recent years, he had been much concerned by the unpalatable fact
that the Ram Brewery, which is the oldest in Britain, was woefully
inefficient and holding back the company´s overall profitability.
After a lengthy feasibility study, begun in 2003, it was announced in
May this year that the site was to be sold for redevelopment and that
brewing would be transferred to a new company in Bedford owned
jointly by Young´s and Charles Wells, the Bedford brewers. He had
insisted throughout that when it came to the crunch, his head would
rule his heart, but his support for the closure of a brewery that had
been in production on the same site since 1581 was tinged with great
sadness. Poignantly, his death comes in the week when Young´s beers
are being brewed for the last time at Wandsworth, though Young´s will
continue as an independent public limited company, running more than
220 pubs in the south of England.
John Young worked way beyond any normal person´s expectation of
retirement and continued until a year or so ago to play a hands-on
role in the day-to-day running of the company. His style was a
charismatic mixture of autocracy and benevolence. Even in his old
age, his brain was razor sharp and he had a forensic eye and ear for
detail. His generosity was unparalleled. He made large donations to
deserving causes and was the saviour of many an employee or friend
down on his luck. He sent out, or personally delivered in the case of
Young´s publicans, more than two thousand Christmas cards every year
and would never forget the birthday of loyal employees and, in many
cases, their children.
He was bilingual in English and French, which was the language he
always spoke to his wife and, when they were younger, his children.
He was also ambidextrous and wrote almost all of his business and
personal letters with a black felt-tip pen, usually with his left
hand but at times with his right. His eyesight was such that he could
read without glasses well into his eighties.
His last appearance in public, when he insisted on chairing the
company´s annual general meeting in July, barely two months before he
died, was an occasion of heroic proportions. He stood, unsteadily and
clearly frail, at the rostrum to defend his board´s decision to sell
the brewery site but had to be helped into a chair to field questions
from the floor. He received rapturous applause, both when he had
finished dealing with the questions and when the meeting ended. He
was physically and mentally drained at the end of it but had won over
a potentially hostile gathering of shareholders.
John Young leaves a son, James, who is deputy chairman of Young´s,
and a daughter, Ilse, who lives in the United States. His wife Yvonne
died in 2002.
Picture: John Young at the opening of the Boathouse in Putney in 2004
Further information from Michael Hardman: 01737 766345
Pictures of John Young, past and present, are available on request
Source: British Guild of Beer Writers, 18 September 2006 OBITUARY