William Young (7 May 1916 - 25 April 2013) was born in Ardrossan and was a

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

international

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player. He later played for the representative

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

multi-national side.Bill Young , Rugby Union , Players and Officials , ESPN Scrum
/ref>

Rugby Union career

Amateur career

Young played

for King's College Hospital before then playing for London Scottish.

Provincial career

He was supposed to play for the

Scotland Probables Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

in the first trial match of season 1937-38. The match due on 18 December 1937 was called off due to frost despite the contingency of straw being placed on The Greenyards pitch at Melrose. He did however turn out for the

side for the second and final trial match of that season, on 15 January 1938.

International career

He was capped ten times for between 1937–48 and three times for

between 1949 and 1950. Along with Maurice Daly of , he is one of only two people to have been capped by a major rugby playing nation and by East Africa. Along with

W.C.W. Murdoch William Copeland Wood Murdoch (3 October 1914, Old Kilpatrick – October 1987, HelensburghPlayer profil ...

, he was one of only two Scottish players to be capped on either side of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, giving him one of the longest international careers on record.Jones, pp56,57 John "Jack" HeatonJack Heaton , Rugby Union , Players and Officials , ESPN Scrum
/ref> and Thomas Arthur "Tommy" Kemp
/ref> also achieved this feat for .

Medical career

He attended City of London School and studied medicine at

St Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The college is located in the historic city-centre of Camb ...

. and became a doctor after he finished playing rugby.

Family

Young was the son of Alexander Robert Young (born c1885 Govan, Lanarkshire Scotland) and Christina Leiper (born c1883 Lanark, Lanarkshire).

References

;Sources * Bath, Richard (ed.) ''The Scotland Rugby Miscellany'' (Vision Sports Publishing Ltd, 2007 ) * Jones, J.R. ''Encyclopedia of Rugby Union Football'' (Robert Hale, London, 1976 ) * Massie, Allan ''A Portrait of Scottish Rugby'' (Polygon, Edinburgh; ) * 1916 births 2013 deaths Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge Scottish rugby union players Scotland international rugby union players People educated at the City of London School Scotland Probables players London Scottish F.C. players Rugby union number eights {{Scotland-rugbyunion-bio-stub