Alexander Bell Filson Young (1876–1938) was a journalist fromNorthern Ireland, who published the first book about the sinking of theRMS Titanic, calledTitanic, in 1912, only 37 days after the sinking. He was also an essayist, war correspondent in theBoer War andWorld War I, a programmes advisor to the BBC, and the author of two novels. Beside his literary work, he was an organist and composer, and a pioneer of motoring and aviation.
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Alexander Bell Filson Young was born inIreland in 1876, atBallyeaston,County Antrim. He was the son of the Revd. William Young and Sarah Young (née Filson).
His first publication wasA Psychic Vigil (1896), which he issued under the pseudonym, 'X. Rays'.
Securing a job as a war correspondent forThe Manchester Guardian, he was in South Africa during theSecond Boer War. His accounts of his experiences and observations there formed the basis of his book,The Relief of Mafeking ... With an account of some earlier episodes (1900). This was followed in 1901 by hisA Volunteer Brigade: notes of a week's field training ...and 'Mastersingers', musical criticism
Young was an early motoring enthusiast, and in 1904 publishedThe Complete Motorist: being an account of the evolution and construction of the modern motor-car, with notes on the selection, use and maintenance of the same, and on the pleasures of travel upon the public roads (which went into eight editions), andThe Joy of the Road (1907). To make a career in publishing he wrote continually on his many enthusiasms and on subjects which would interest the public. In 1903 appeared hisIreland at the Cross Roads; in 1905 his novel,The Sands of Pleasure (at the time considered a scandalous account of prostitution in Paris); in 1906 hisVenus and Cupid: an impression .. after Velasquez ..., hisChristopher Columbus and the New World and hisMastersingers: appreciations; in 1907 hisThe Wagner Stories andThe Lover's Hours (poems); in 1908 a second novel,When the Tide Turns; in 1909Memory Harbour: essays; in 1911More Mastersingers (a second volume of musical criticism); in 1912Opera Stories, hisLetters from Solitude and Other Essays (reprinted from theSaturday Review) andA House in Anglesey (privately printed). Young also editedOutlook, and literary columns inThe Saturday Review and theDaily Mail.
In 1911 Young visitedBelfast to see the RMSTitanic under construction; and when it sank in 1912 his book about the disaster appeared little over a month afterwards.
In 1914 he made the first of four contributions to the "Notable Trials" series with an account of the trial of theFrederick Seddon and his wife. That yearJames Joyce'sDubliners was published byGrant Richards; Young had commended the book earlier when working as a reader for Richards.Joyce suggested that Young should write an introduction to the work which he preferred not to do.[1]
BeforeWorld War I Young briefly spent time on SirDavid Beatty's flagship,HMSLion, and on the outbreak of war in 1914 he was able, through the influence ofAdmiral Lord Fisher,First Sea Lord, to enter theRoyal Naval Volunteer Reserve and be assigned to Beatty's flagship again from November that year. He was at theBattle of Dogger Bank, but left the navy in 1915 before theBattle of Jutland in 1916. After the War he published in 1921With Beatty in the North Sea andWith the Battlecruisers. He also wrote the article on David Beatty for the 12th edition ofEncyclopædia Britannica (1922).
He also continued his writing on a variety of other subjects –A Christmas Card (1914),New Leaves: essays (1915),Cornwall and a Light Car (1926), and he resumed his contributions to the "Notable Trials" series, with accounts of the trials ofH. H. Crippen (1919),Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters (1923) andHerbert Rowse Armstrong (1926).
In the early days of broadcasting he came to knowJohn Reith and in 1926 became an adviser on radio programmes for the BBC. From 1930 to 1936 he contributed a weekly essay to the BBC's periodical,Radio Times. In the early 1930s a proposed television play based on Young's book,Titanic (1912), was shelved because of protests by relatives of persons involved in the sinking. From 1926 he produced a succession of folk plays by FrBernard Walke to be produced by the BBC fromSt Hilary Church, Cornwall.
He continued with some writing on miscellaneous subjects. In 1934 hisShall I Listen? - Studies in the Adventure of Broadcasting appeared.
At the age of fifty-eight, in 1936 he learned to fly; and in the same year published his radio broadcasts of the experience asGrowing Wings.
Young was also an able photographer. A bromide print by him ofMax Beerbohm is held by the National Portrait Gallery, London.[2]
He died in 1938 in London[how?]. His funeral was held at St Mary's church, Bourne Street. He was twice married, latterly to Vera (née Rawnsley) North in 1918 (whose third husband would be the writerClifford Bax), with whom he had two sons, William David Loraine Filson-Young and Richard Filson-Young (b. 1921). Both were killed asRoyal Air Force pilots inWorld War II – Richard in 1942 and William (Billy) in 1945.
