Douglas Young

FRSA The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

TD DL WS (born October 1948), also known as Doug Young, is a former

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

and reserve

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer. Young was born in

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

, Scotland, and educated at

Inverness Royal Academy Inverness Royal Academy is a comprehensive secondary school in the city of Inverness in the Highland area of Scotland. A former grammar school with a history dating back to the 13th century, the Academy became a comprehensive in the mid-1970 ...

(when that school had a primary department),

Drumtochty Castle Drumtochty Castle is a neo-gothic style castellated mansion erected in 1812 approximately three kilometres north-west of Auchenblae, Kincardineshire, Scotland. This building stands on the southern edge of Drumtochty Forest. It was built to the ...

School,

Fettes College Fettes College () is a co-educational independent boarding and day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, with over two-thirds of its pupils in residence on campus. The school was originally a boarding school for boys only and became co-ed in 1983. In ...

, and the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen ( sco, University o' 'Aiberdeen; abbreviated as ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; gd, Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Sc ...

. Young was a practising solicitor from 1973 to 2002, both in local government (

Moray Moray () gd, Moireibh or ') is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Between 1975 ...

District Council and

Highland Regional Council Highland ( gd, A' Ghàidhealtachd, ; sco, Hieland) is a council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in the United Kingdom. It was the 7th most populous council area in Scotland at the 2011 census. It share ...

) and in private practice. He has been a Member of the Council of the Scottish Law Agents' Society. He remains a non-practising

Writer to the Signet The Society of Writers to His Majesty's Signet is a private society of Scottish solicitors, dating back to 1594 and part of the College of Justice. Writers to the Signet originally had special privileges in relation to the drawing up of document ...

. Young enlisted in the British Territorial Army in 1966, being commissioned into the

Scottish Division The Scottish Division was a British Army Infantry command, training and administrative apparatus designated for all Scottish line infantry units. It merged with the Prince of Wales' Division, to form the Scottish, Welsh and Irish Division in ...

in 1970. He served in the 52nd Lowland Volunteers (now 52nd Lowland, 6th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland) from 1970 to 1973, the 51st Highland Volunteers (now 51st Highland, 7th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland) from 1973 to 1989, and a central pool of staff officers from 1989 to 2002, assigned for much of that period to 20th Armoured Brigade. In December 1990 Young was granted a Short Service Volunteer Commission in his affiliated regiment the

Queen's Own Highlanders (Seaforth and Camerons) The Queen's Own Highlanders (Seaforth and Camerons), officially abbreviated "QO HLDRS," was an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Scottish Division. It was in existence from 1961 to 1994. History 1961–1970 The regiment was f ...

, serving in the Headquarters of 1st Armoured Division throughout

Operation Granby Operation Granby, commonly abbreviated Op Granby, was the code name given to the British military operations during the 1991 Gulf War. 53,462 members of the British Armed Forces were deployed during the conflict. The total cost of operations wa ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

and

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

. In 1996 he served in

IFOR The Implementation Force (IFOR) was a NATO-led multinational peace enforcement force in Bosnia and Herzegovina under a one-year mandate from 20 December 1995 to 20 December 1996 under the codename ''Operation Joint Endeavour''. Background NATO ...

with HQ ARRC based in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

. He was promoted to the rank of

Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

the same year, and served 1996-97 as a senior liaison officer to HQ SFOR in Sarajevo. In 1998 Young returned to the Balkans for elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and again as a member of the United Kingdom Kosovo Diplomatic Observer Mission, subsequently merged in the

Kosovo Verification Mission The 1998-1999 Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM) was an OSCE mission to verify that the Serbian and Yugoslav forces were complying with the UN October Agreement to end atrocities in Kosovo, withdraw armed forces from Kosovo, and abide by a ceasef ...

of the

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, prom ...

(OSCE). He worked mainly in the

Orahovac Rahovec ( sq-definite, Rahoveci) or Orahovac (Serbian Cyrillic: Ораховац) is a town and municipality located in the District of Prizren in western Kosovo. According to the 2011 census, the town of Rahovec has 15,892 inhabitants, while the ...

and

Mališevo Malisheva, ) is a town and municipality in Kosovo. According to the Kosovo Agency of Statistics (KAS) estimate from the 2011 census, there were 54,613 people residing in Malisheva Municipality, with Kosovo Albanians constituting the majority of th ...

municipalities. He was the originator of a plan to take local staff of any ethnicity, such as interpreters, to their nominated places of safety in the event of the Mission's withdrawal to Macedonia. This duly took place in March 1999. Young then became an OSCE

Human Rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

officer working with refugees and potential witnesses near the Macedonia/Kosovo border, and in

Skopje Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; r ...

. Before retiring from the reserve forces in 2002, Young served a final tour with

KFOR KFOR may refer to: * KFOR (AM), a radio station (1240 AM) licensed to Lincoln, Nebraska, United States * KFOR-TV, a television station (channel 4 analog/27 digital) licensed to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States * KFOR-TV (Nebraska), a defunct ...

as a senior liaison officer to the

Kosovo Protection Corps The Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC; sq, Trupat e Mbrojtjes së Kosovës (TMK)) was a civilian emergency services organisation in Kosovo active from 1999 to 2009. The KPC was created on September 21, 1999, through the promulgation of UNMIK Regulat ...

. He has given evidence as a certified expert witness before the

Immigration Appeal Tribunal The Immigration Appellate Authority (IAA) was an independent judicial body in the United Kingdom constituted under the Immigration Act 1971, with jurisdiction to hear appeals from many immigration and asylum decisions. Administered by the Tribunal ...

. Young is the author o
"Silence in the Ranks"
an analysis of difficulties encountered by members of the

British Armed Forces The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, s ...

and their families in participating in the UK General Election of 2005, with recommendations which were largely reflected in the

Electoral Administration Act 2006 The Electoral Administration Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, passed on 11 July 2006. Among its main provisions, the Act: * Provides a legislative framework for setting up a "Coordinated Online Record of Electors", kn ...

. Young was one of the founders of the

British Armed Forces Federation The British Armed Forces Federation (BAFF) is an independent non-statutory professional staff association for members of the British Armed Forces. It is politically non-partisan. Founded in late 2006 as a not-for-profit company limited by guarant ...

(BAFF) in late 2006, and was a frequent spokesperson on behalf of that organisation. In 2007 he co-authored an article"British Armed Forces Federation: An Independent Voice", ''The House'' Parliamentary Magazine, 2 April 2007 (retrieved Nov 2007)
/ref> which highlighted the

Military Covenant The Military Covenant or Armed Forces Covenant is a term introduced in 2000 into British public life to refer to the mutual obligations between the United Kingdom and His Majesty's Armed Forces. According to ''The Guardian'', "it is an informal un ...

between the Nation and the Army and, by extension, the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

and

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

. He participated in a Council of Europe working group on Human Rights of Members of the Armed Forces.EUROMIL news - "Strasbourg: EUROMIL delegation at the Council of Europe 14-15 June 2007" (accessed Oct 2007)
Council of Europe: DH-DEV Group on Human Rights of Members of the Armed Forces (DH-DEV-FA) (accessed Dec 2007)
Young was appointed Vice Lord-Lieutenant of the Inverness Lieutenancy (Inverness, Badenoch, Lochaber and Strathspey) on 24 July 2015.

References

See also