Mark Aitchison Young

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Sir Mark Young GCMG KStJ
21st Governor of Hong Kong
In office 1 May 1946 – 17 May 1947
Monarch	George VI
Colonial Secretary	David Mercer MacDougall
Preceded by	Sir Cecil Harcourt (Acting, Military Administration)
Succeeded by	Alexander Grantham
In office 10 September 1941 – 25 December 1941
Monarch	George VI
Colonial Secretary	Norman Lockhart Smith Sir Franklin Gimson
Preceded by	Sir Geoffry Northcote
Succeeded by	Takashi Sakai (under Japanese occupation)
Personal details
Born	(1886-06-30)30 June 1886 British Raj
Died	12 May 1974(1974-05-12) (aged 87) Winchester, England
Spouse	Josephine Mary
Alma mater	King's College, Cambridge
Profession	soldier, colonial administrator
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	楊慕琦
Simplified Chinese	杨慕琦
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yáng Mùqí Yue: Cantonese Jyutping joeng4 mou6 kei4

Sir Mark Aitchison Young GCMG KStJ (Chinese: 楊慕琦; 30 June 1886 – 12 May 1974) was a British colonial administrator, who is best remembered for his service as the Governor of Hong Kong at the time of the Japanese invasion of the territory in 1941.

Born in British India, the son and grandson of senior members of the Indian Civil Service, Young followed in the steps of his two elder brothers and became a colonial administrator, serving in Ceylon, Sierra Leone, Palestine, before becoming Governor of Barbados and of Tanganyika. Young assumed the governorship of Hong Kong in 1941, three months before the outbreak of the Pacific War. During the Battle of Hong Kong, Young refused to capitulate on numerous occasions, before surrendering on Christmas Day, 1941 in order to avoid further bloodshed. Young then became a Japanese prisoner-of-war until 1945.

After a period of recovery, Young returned to Hong Kong in 1946 as its governor, Young introduced limited democratic reforms in Hong Kong, which were undone by his successor, Sir Alexander Grantham. Retiring to England, Young died in Winchester in 1974.