Alexander Young VC

Name: Alexander Young

Conflict: Second Boer War

Gazetted: November 8, 1901

Service: South African Forces

Place/date of birth: Ballinona, Co Galway, Ireland/January 27, 1873

Rank when awarded VC (and later highest rank):  Sergeant Major (later Lieutenant)

Date of bravery: August 13, 1901

London Gazette citation:

Cape Police. Sergeant-Major Alexander Young.

Towards the close of the action at Ruiter’s Kraal on the 13th August, 1901, Sergeant-Major Young, with a handful of men, rushed some kopjes which were being held by Commandant Erasmus and about 20 Boers. On reaching these kopjes the enemy were seen galloping back to another kopje held by the Boers. Sergeant-Major Young then galloped on some 50 yards ahead of his party and closing with the enemy shot one of them and captured Commandant Erasmus, the latter firing at him three times at point blank range before being taken prisoner.

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Other decorations: N/A

Place/date of death: Somme, France/October 19, 1916

Grave/memorials: Thiepval Memorial, Picardie, France; St Nicholas’s Cathedral, Galway Town, Co Galway, Ireland

Origin of VC to the Lord Ashcroft collection: Purchased at auction, Sotheby’s, Billingshurst, West Sussex, 1995

Current location of VC: Displayed on rotation at The Lord Ashcroft Gallery: Extraordinary Heroes exhibition, Imperial War Museum