Alexander Lumsden Young (1833-1889) played a significant role in the Ferguson & Urie stained glass company.

He was born in Scotland circa 1833-34 to Benjamin Young and Isabella Cumming. He married Elizabeth Belle Gray on the 27th December 1864 in Melbourne at the age of 30, at which time his profession was cited as being a plumber.

His early business interests were with Urie, Young & Co producing by-products from maize such as ‘maizena starch’, which won awards at the 1866-67 Intercolonial Exhibition. 

Sometime in the 1860s or 70s joined his brother in law, James Urie, and became a member of the stained glass firm Ferguson & Urie. His sister Grace Hardy Young had married James Urie in Nth Melbourne in 1855 . In late 1885 he traveled to Brisbane with his nephew, William Urie (son of James Urie, principal of Ferguson & Urie), to supervise the installation of the companies largest stained glass window known to have been created by the firm  (35 feet in height) which was erected at the west end of St Stephen’s Catholic Cathedral in Brisbane.

At the 1886, 87, and 88 Ferguson & Urie company dinners he played the part of Vice-Chairman for the formalities on each occasion.

His portrait appears amongst the 31 photographs in the collage created for the occasion of the Ferguson & Urie company dinner held on the evening of the 22nd of June 1887 at the North Melbourne Mechanics Institute.

Alexander Lumsden Young died at his residence, “Dean-Bank” 21 Abbotsford St, North Melbourne, on the 1st August 1889 aged 56. His probate (intestate) was not applied for until more than seven years later, by his wife Elizabeth, who cited her eldest son, George Watson Young, as the reason and that the entire matter was left in his hands, which he had neglected. Elizabeth died 36 years later in 1925.

Alexander Lumsden Young on the occasion of the Ferguson & Urie Company Dinner held on 22 June 1887.

“YOUNG-GRAY.- On the 27th inst, at the Manse of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Collins-street, by the Rev. Irving Hetherington. Alexander Lumsden Young, plumber, Melbourne, to Elizabeth Bell Gray, late of Stockbridge, Edinburgh”.

The Argus, Melbourne, Vic, Friday 2nd August 1889, page 1.

“YOUNG.- On the 1st inst., at Deanbank, Abbotsford-street, North Melbourne. Alexander, the beloved husband of Elizabeth Young, aged 56 years. Home papers please copy”.

The Argus, Melbourne, Vic, Saturday 3rd August 1889. page 1.

“THE Friends of the late Mr. ALEXANDER L, YOUNG are respectfully invited  to follow his remains to the place of interment in the Melbourne General Cemetery. The funeral will leave his late residence, “Dean-Bank”, Abbotsford-street, North Melbourne, THIS DAY (Saturday, 3rd inst), at 3 o’clock. ALFRED ALLISON, undertaker, 221 Victoria-street, West Melbourne; Mount Alexander road, Moonee Ponds; and Racecourse-road, Newmarket, Telephone 980″.

The Argus, Melbourne, Vic, Monday 9th March 1925, page 1.

“YOUNG.- On the 6th March (passed peacefully away), at her late residence, Dean Bank, Beaconsfield parade, Croxton, Elizabeth Belle, widow of the late Alexander Young, much loved mother of Isabelle (Mrs. Arthur H. Padley, Bacchus Marsh, Vic). In God’s Care”.