Sir Walter James Young

KBE KBE may refer to: * Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, post-nominal letters * Knowledge-based engineering Knowledge-based engineering (KBE) is the application of knowledge-based systems technology to the domain o ...

(2 April 1872 – 5 January 1940) was an Australian businessman. Walter James Young was the son of John Young, a pastoralist, and was born at Moonta, South Australia. He was educated at

Whinham College North Adelaide Grammar School, later Whinham College was a private school operated in North Adelaide, South Australia by John Whinham (3 August 1803 – 13 March 1886) and his family. History John Whinham The founder of the school was born at Sh ...

and obtained a position with Elder Smith and Company at Adelaide in 1897. His energy and ability soon marked him out for promotion and 25 years later, at the early age of 40, he became general manager of the company. In 1929 he was appointed managing-director. Though well known in business circles Young did not come into public notice until the 1914–18 war, when he was a member of the Commonwealth shipping board, and vice-chairman of the Commonwealth central wool committee. In 1917 he went on a special mission to the United States for the British government. In 1920 he was chairman of the London committee which carried out negotiations with the British government relating to Australian Wool carry-over, and he was also a member of the advisory committee of the

Australian Wheat Board AWB Limited was a major grain marketing organisation based in Australia. Founded in 1939 by the Government of Australia as the Australian Wheat Board, in 1999 it was sold off by the government, initially to be owned by wheat growers. It was acqu ...

. In 1923 Young was a member of the committee of inter-Imperial exchanges at the Imperial economic conference held at London, and showed himself to be a man of wide knowledge. From this time onwards Young's opinions were much valued by state and federal governments. He was chairman of a special committee appointed by the South Australian government in 1927 to advise on the state finances. Again in 1930 he was chairman of the advisory committee to advise in connexion with the depression. He was able to resign in 1932 having recommended that South Australia should fall in with the "premiers' plan". He was a director of various companies, a member of the council of the University of Adelaide from 1924, and was chairman of the South Australian branch of the

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is South Africa's central and premier scientific research and development organisation. It was established by an act of parliament in 1945 and is situated on its own campus in the cit ...

. He was created CBE in 1918 and KBE in 1932.

References

* 1872 births 1940 deaths Australian Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Australian businesspeople People from Moonta, South Australia {{Australia-business-bio-stub

See also

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