John Stephenson Young
YOUNG, John Stevenson BSc BE MIEAust MICE (1883-1955)
John Stephenson Young was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, on April 18, 1883. He was the eldest son of commercial clerk, Andrew Young, and his wife Eliza Young, née Stevenson. John's father died in March 1887 leaving his wife and three young children. John grew up with the support of his mother and grandmother, being educated at Caldy Grange Grammar School, West Kirby in Cheshire, and then at the University of Liverpool.
On graduation John was employed with J J Wood MICE. In 1906 he was the Resident Engineer at Wicklow Harbour, in Ireland. In 1909 he was employed by the contractors for the Bombay Alexandra Docks, and worked in India. In 1914 he returned to England and worked for the Upper Medway Navigation and Conservancy Board.
In 1915 Young married Winifred Hawley Brown at Birkenhead, Cheshire. They had a son, Noel Stevenson Young, born in 1917.
From 1915 to 1917 Young worked with Sir Douglas Fox and Partners. Ralph Freeman was an engineer with this company who went on to design the Sydney Harbour Bridge (1932) and become a partner in the company as Freeman Fox and Partners.
From 1917 to 1919 Young worked for the Admiralty. In 1919 he was appointed Resident Engineer at Batavia, Java, for the Blue Funnel Line.
In 1925 Young was recruited by James Thompson to be Engineer, Harbours and Rivers, for the WA Public Works Department, to replace E H Carlin. His appointment was one of the first decisions made by F W H Stileman. Young arrived in Western Australia at Albany, on October 16, 1925, on the “Diogenes”, accompanied by his wife, young son Noel and his older sister Emma Mary Young.
One of the early projects for John Stevenson Young was the redevelopment of the Geraldton Port. A conceptual plan had been developed by E H Carlin. Young completed the design and the first berth was open to shipping in 1930.
Young’s role in managing rivers was brought into sharp focus with the floods of 1926, and he, together with Norman Fernie, prepared a proposal for improving the flow of the Mortlock and Avon Rivers. £100,000 was spent on improving river flow, sewerage and drainage at Northam.
A new dredge “//Stirling//” was commissioned with her oil barge “Reveley” in December 1929, and was a familiar sight on the Swan River for the next 50 years. Extensive reclamation was carried out in the 1930’s around the perimeter of Perth Water and the Causeway as well as Crawley, Nedlands and Dalkeith. A new jetty was built in deeper water at Esperance in 1934 with the official opening ceremony on April 13th, 1935.
In 1936 and 1937 the Beadon Point Jetty was rebuilt after being partially destroyed in a cyclone in 1934.
Between 1936 and 1938 a new 2,267 feet jetty was built at Port Sampson to replace the jetty extensively damaged in a cyclone in January 1925.
A key facility designed by John Stevenson Young was the 2,000 ton Fremantle Slipway, constructed on the southern side of the harbour. It was based on a slipway built in Mombasa, Kenya, and construction commenced in September 1940. It was soon clear that the design of the cradle needed to be modified to suit thinner hulled submarines and the original telescopic cradle was replaced with a fixed cradle. The first vessel to use the slipway was the “Chungking” on September 22, 1942. Young was involved with other defence activities, including a barrier to Cockburn Sound, and he was engaged in a consulting capacity for work at the port of Darwin during World War II.
The move to bulk handling of grain required specialised wharf storage and loading gantries. Young was then involved with the construction of storage and bulk loading facilities at Fremantle and Bunbury.
There was significant port construction and dredging during Young’s tenure. From 1942 to 1945 over 2.8 million tons of sand were dredged from the Parmelia and Success banks to improve access into Cockburn Sound.
John Stevenson Young retired on September 20, 1948 and was succeeded by Frank Tydeman who had been working as a port consultant for the State Government. Young died on November 22, 1955 in Cheshire, England and was survived by his son. His wife had died a year earlier.
A strong supporter of professional associations, he was made Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1910 and a full Member in 1926. He was also a Member of the Institution of Engineers, Australia from 1939. In collaboration with F W H. Stileman he presented a Paper to the Institution of Civil Engineers on “Transport problems in Western Australia.; with special reference to railway construction and harbour development ”.
References:
https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/pdf/10.1680/iicep.1957.12408 accessed 6.11.2020
https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Douglas_Fox_and_Partners accessed 6.11.2020
J S H Le Page, Building a State, Water Authority of Western Australia, Leederville, 1986
Albany Advertiser, 7.10.1925, p3
West Australian, 13.12.1929, p28
Western Mail, 19.8.1937, p16
West Australian, 21.9.1948, p12
