Thomas Young was a politician in the early days of the colony of South Australia. His eldest son, also named Thomas Young, was for many years mayor of Port Augusta.
History
Thomas Young sen. was born at King's Somborne, Hampshire near Southampton and educated at Winchester, then was apprenticed to an uncle at Andover. He emigrated to South Australia in the ship Singapore, arriving on 11 November 1839. He and partner Henry Douglas took up land at Happy Valley, site of the present reservoir, where they grew wheat, which proved profitable. Later he opened a general store at O'Halloran Hill, and is also recorded as having a store at Clarendon. He was Chairman of the first District Council of Clarendon, holding that office for three years. He was elected to the House of Assembly, representing the seat of Noarlunga from 9 March 1857 to 22 March 1860. From 1867 he served as Clerk of the Courts at Blinman, for nine years then with the Main Roads Board for the Northern District in Port Augusta from 1877 to 1884, when the board was abolished. He spent some time in Adelaide, then returned to Port Augusta where he joined his son's firm of Young & Gordon, and also acted as auditor for various Port Augusta institutions.
Family
Thomas Young was twice married. By his first wife he had four children, two surviving; by his second marriage to Emily Mary Baker he had three daughters and one son:
Thomas Young jun. was born in Happy Valley and educated at the schools of J. M. Holder and J. L. Young. He worked for his father, then for D. & J. Fowler Ltd. before moving in 1864 to Port Augusta, where he founded the shipping agency Bignell & Young then Young & Gordon with Robert Gordon. He served as mayor of Port Augusta 1879–1881 and 1898–1900. He was involved in copper mining at Mount Gunson. He married Isabella Loudon in 1868; their children included:
third son George Young married Isabella Stephens Stanton on 3 July 1877. He was butcher at Blinman then with Young & Gordon in Port Augusta.
Sidney Wooldridge Caldwell Young married Charity Nixon Conway in 1905; they lived at Port Augusta. He married again, to widow Alice Mary Brougham, née Pascoe c. 20 March 1930, lived at Quorn, where he was a prominent musician, then Dulwich.
