Background
Born in Poona, then in the Bombay Presidency of British India, the son of an Indian Army brigadier, David Young returned to the United Kingdom for his education at Wellington College, Berkshire.
Born in Poona, then in the Bombay Presidency of British India, the son of an Indian Army brigadier, David Young returned to the United Kingdom for his education at Wellington College, Berkshire.
He then did National Service in the Royal Engineers, being commissioned as a second lieutenant on 21 October 1950, He completed his active duty on 15 October 1951 when he transferred to the Supplementary Reserve of Officers, and went up to Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied Mathematics, gaining a first class degree.
He was a supporter of women priests, but opposed to active homosexual priests and same-sex marriages. He was promoted acting lieutenant on 6 July 1952, and this was made substantive on 2 September 1954, and his National Service ended on 23 September 1955. Young worked in industry as a research mathematician with Plessey before deciding to take Holy Orders via study at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford.
He worked as a curate in Liverpool and London, then went to the School of Oriental and African Studies to study Sanskrit and Pali before going to Sri Lanka with the Church Missionary Society.
In 1970 he was appointed vicar of Burwell, Cambridgeshire. He lectured part-time in the Faculty of Divinity of Cambridge University.
He briefly rejoined the army, holding a commission as a Chaplain to the Forces, 4th Class in the Territorial Army section of the Royal Army Chaplains" Department between 21 November 1972 and 5 September 1975. In 1975, he was appointed Archdeacon of Huntingdon, and vicar of Great Gidding, then in 1977, briefly rector of Hemingford Abbots and an honorary canon before his nomination as Bishop of Ripon.
He retired in 1999, having been diagnosed with bone marrow cancer.