This concise biography of Morris Young shows how he developed the medical services of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in the first three decades of the twentieth century, and ended his career working with Sir Alexander Fleming at St Mary’s Hospital in London. Young is an important figure in the history of medicine in Persia, and this biography introduces the achievements of this modest man who devoted his life to medicine.
Willem Floor, Public Health in Qajar Iran. Washington DC: MAGE Publishers, 2004. 173.G.B. Scott `Early Days at the A.P.O.C. Fields near Masjid-i-Suleiman (`Solomon's Temple') SW Persia', 1930, BP Archive [hereafter BPA] 72136. See also R.W. Ferrier, `Makers of BP: No 4. Dr M.Y. Young', BP Shield, September 1972: 10–13. Barbara Cooke, Oil Men: the Twinned Lives of Arnold Wilson and Morris Young, PhD thesis, University of East Anglia, 2012. Dr Cooke focuses on Young's work as Political Officer rather than his career in medicine.
2.
Esmail Yourdshahian, `Life of Dr Joseph Plumb Cochran, Founder of Iran's First Contemporary Medical College', Archives of Iranian Medicine 2002, Vol 5, No 2; Mohammad-Hossien Azizi, `Dr Jacob Eduard Polak (1818–1891): The Pioneer of Modern Medicine in Iran', Archives of Iranian Medicine, 2005, Vol 8, No 2; Mohammad-Hossien Azizi, `In the Memory of the Late Professor Charles Oberling, the First Dean of Faculty of Medicine in Tehran', Archives of Iranian Medicine, 2005, Vol 8, No 4; Mohammad-Hossien Azizi, `Dr Johan Louis Schlimmer (1819–1881): The Eminent Professor of Medicine at Dar-al-Fonun School', Archives of Iranian Medicine, 2006, Vol 9, No 1. See also Floor, op. cit., p.7–9.
3.
Elgood, Cyril. A Medical History of Persia and the Eastern Caliphate, from its earliest times to the year AD1932. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1951, pp. 545–554. See also, 2 March 1922, HE Nichols to Strick, Scott & Co Ltd, ‘D/O Political’, BPA 54496.
4.
Elgood, Cyril. Medicine in Persia. New York, NY: P.B.H. Hoeber, 1934, p. 75 (Reprinted in New York, NY by AMS Press, 1978). 20 March 1926, AR Neligan & MD Lond, ‘Public Health in Persia 1914–1924’ Part 1, The Lancet March 20 1926, 635–639; AR Neligan & MD Lond, ‘Public Health in Persia 1914–1924’ Part 2, The Lancet March 27 1926, 690–694; AR Neligan & MD Lond, ‘Public Health in Persia 1914–1924’ Part 3, The Lancet April 3 1926, 742–744.
5.
14 October 1927, Young MY. Cholera epidemic in Persia. BPA 62428.
6.
Persia. Geographical handbook Series BR 525. London: Naval Intelligence Division 1945, pp. 413–420.
7.
Berry Ritchie, Portrait in Oil. An Illustrated History of BP. London, 1995, 9–20. James H. Bamberg, The History of the British Petroleum Company, Vol 2: The Anglo-Iranian Years, 1928–1954. Cambridge University Press, 1995, 3–4.
8.
Gene R. Garthwaite, `The Bhaktiyari Khans, the Government of Iran, and the British, 1846–1915', International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 1972, Vol 3, 24–44.
9.
Wilson AT. S. W. Persia. Letters and diaries of a young Political Officer 1907–1914. Oxford University Press, 1924, p.31; Garthwaite,8 p.36.
10.
Yudlevitz, Yudlevich, Youdelevich and other variations can be found. Biographical information on Young's father can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuven_Yudalavich. See also Salmon Y. Ideology and reality in the Bilu Aliyah. Harvard Ukrainian Studies 1978; II: 430–466, 465. I am grateful to Moira Rankin, Glasgow University Archivist for providing me with biographical information on Morris Young including the application form in which he lists ‘Jaffa' as his place of birth, although his father is not believed to have arrived in this area until 1882.
11.
LonghurstH. Adventure in oil. The story of British Petroleum, London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1959, pp. 59–59.
12.
Hull A and Geyer-Kordesch J. The shaping of the medical profession. The history of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, 1888–1999. London: The Hambledon Press, 1999, pp.27–46.
13.
National Archive of the UK (hereafter TNA), HO 144/807/135291.
14.
JWW. Development of the Company Medical Service. I Early History. The NAFT A.PO.C. Magazine 1932; VIII: 6–13. Anonymous. The plague: prevalence of the disease. British Medical Journal 1907: 1261.
15.
JWW. Development of the Company Medical Service. I Early History. The NAFT A.P.O.C. Magazine 1932; VIII: 10.
16.
Morris Y Young Memo, ‘The Bakhtiari Khans at Malamir’, 26 February 1909; and 27 March 1909, GB Reynolds to Scott, Crick & Co Ltd, ‘Para 2. of my letter No 57 of Mch 3rd/09 to you’, both in BPA 69830.
17.
21 June 1910, Charles Greenway to Hamilton, BPA 54484. I am grateful to Victoria Killick, archivist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for providing me with details of Dr Young’s presence at the school in 1910.
18.
JWW. Development of the Company Medical Service. I Early History. The NAFT A.P.O.C. Magazine 1932; VIII: 13.
19.
30 May 1924, Minutes of the Management Committee, BPA 54531; 1 October 1925 Letter from MY Young, BPA 54534.
20.
March 1924, ‘Medical Services March 1924’, BPA 62398; April 1927 ‘APOC Persian Compendium Medical and Health Services Pipeline Area’, BPA 37065.
21.
19 January 1926, MY Young. ‘Abadan Hospital’, BPA 62403.
22.
18 July 1930, Morris Y Young. ‘The Re-Organisation of the Company’s Medical Services in Persia’, BPA 68938.
23.
4 May 1931, MY Young. ‘Terms of Reference’; and 7 May 1931, JA Jameson letter to EHO Elkington, BPA 62427. On medical supplies, see letter from MY Young to E Jamieson 30 October 1931, BPA 112930.
24.
2 February 1932, MY Young to Mr Bell, ‘Medical Staff – Persia’, BPA 62427.
25.
13 July 1950, EHO Elkington. ‘Memorandum to the Finance Committee, Revenue-Expenditure 1950-Abadan Municipal Hospital’, BPA 3575; 31 December 1950, ‘Medical Facilities’, BPA 68037.
26.
The Alexander Fleming Papers (hereafter Fleming Papers), British Library, London, Vol XXIII Lectures and Speeches, March–October 1952, MS 56128.
27.
Letter from the Medical Research Council 28 September 1938, TNA FD 1/5701.
28.
AE Landsbrough-Thomas to AE Higginbottom. 14 July 1940, TNA FD 1/5703.
29.
Proposed Staffing Arrangements for Subsidiary Laboratories in Grater London, 14 October 1938, TNA FD 1/5701. Untitled, undated document sent to Lt-Col EH Potts, Ministry of Health, TNA FD 1/5702. Dr T Carnwaith-Thomson, 28 March 1940, ‘Review of the P.S.H.L.’, TNA FD1 5703. Arthur Boland Porteous was a graduate of St Mary's Medical School and worked there as a pathologist from 1919 to 1951. I am grateful to Kevin Brown of the Fleming Museum for this information.
30.
Young's letter of resignation dated 16 April 1949, Fleming Papers, Vol XIII Papers and Correspondence June 1948–September 1949, MS 562118.
31.
Fleming Papers, Vol XXIII Lectures and speeches 1940–1955, MS 56119.
