Anthony Young was born in 1916 and was from London.

In January 1938, Sub Lieutenant Young was granted a temporary commission as a Flying Officer to the RAF.

Young was a Swordfish pilot of 824 Squadron operating from HMS Eagle in the Mediterranean during the early part of the Second World War. He was also one of the pilots aboard who were trained as a fighter pilot by Commander Charles Keighly-Peach to use the four Sea Gladiator which provided the fighter cover of the carrier.

During August 1940 the Mediterranean Fleet was out for a raid in support of the Army. The battleships HMS Warspite, HMS Ramilles and HMS Malaya, supported by the cruiser HMS Kent and three flotillas of destroyers bombarded Bardia harbour and Fort Capuzzo on 17 August, starting at 06:45 and continuing for 22 minutes. As the vessels headed back towards Alexandria a series of bombing attacks were launched against them by the Regia Aeronautica.
The RAF and the FAA provided escort for the fleet. HMS Eagle's Fighter Flight of three Sea Gladiators had been flown to Sidi Barrani airfield in Libya, and from here patrolled over the Fleet. 'B' and 'C' Flights of 80 Squadron provided air support with flights of four Gladiators over the ships from dawn to dusk. ‘A’ Flight of 112 Squadron was positioned at Z Landing Ground (Matruh West) while ‘C’ Flight of 112 Squadron was based at Y LG about 18 kilometres further west.
At 08:20 Flying Officer Peter Wykeham-Barnes and his four-aircraft section from ‘B’ flight of 80 Squadron spotted a Cant Z.501 flying boat over Tobruk. Wykeham-Barnes dived down through the clouds to attack it. As he was about to open fire his starboard gun came unmounted and ripped through the fuselage, severing a strut and damaging the leading edge of the tailplane. The Gladiator started to roll but he reacted quickly, put on full aileron to hold the mainplane and then continued the attack. The flying boat eventually fell in flames and crashed into the sea after several passes by Wykeham-Barnes and Flying Officer P. T. Dowding.
This was a 143^a Squadriglia Z.501 from Menalao, flown by Sottotente Cesare Como with Sottotenente di Vascello Renzo Monselesan as observer that was shot down; the crew perished.
Two hours later the attacks on the Royal Navy began when, at 10:40 five S.79s were seen at 12,000 feet, heading in from the north-east. Over the fleet there were, on standing patrol, at least the Gladiators of ‘A’ Flight 112 Squadron (probably six of them), the three Sea Gladiators of HMS Eagle’s Fighter Flight and a single Hurricane from ‘A’ Flight 80 Squadron flown by Flying Officer John Lapsley. They intercepted the Italian bombers and altogether claimed six of them; one by Flight Lieutenant Lloyd Schwab, one by Pilot Officer Peter Wickham, (both from 112 Squadron) and three by Lapsley. Two Sea Gladiators flown by Lieutenant (A) Kenneth Keith (N5513) and Lieutenant Young (N5567) attacked several formations. Young attacked one in company with a 112 Squadron Gladiator flown by an unknown pilot. Keith joined the attack and the port wing of the bomber burst into flames, two members of the crew bailing out before the Savoia crashed into the sea. Commander Charles Keighly-Peach (N5517) became separated, and realizing the futility of chasing the fleeing bombers alone, headed back over the Fleet in time to see to more formations attacking (totally 25 S.79s were counted). He made three attacks on one bomber, seeing numerous pieces fall off and it went into a shallow dive. One man baled out, but as the aircraft lost height rapidly, it disappeared into cloud. He attacked another twice but without result.
The Italians lost four bombers and claimed seven Gladiators shot down in return (it seems that all the seven claims were submitted by the gunners aboard the Savoia bombers, two of them by 10^o Stormo gunners). In fact only the Gladiator of Pilot Officer Richard Acworth was seriously damaged when he attacked an S.79s, but although wounded himself Acworth was able to fly back to base where he crash-landed and the aircraft was written-off.
Italian units participating in the attack were the 10^o Stormo with ten aircraft and the 15^o and the 33^o Stormi with another sixteen aircraft. The Italians arrived over the target in consecutive waves. There is a lack of details of the attack of the 15^o and the 33^o Stormi but they suffered no losses and claimed no successes.
The 10^o Stormo aircraft were a first group of five Savoias of the 58^a Squadriglia and a second group under the command of Capitano Musch and composed of four aircraft of the 56^a Squadriglia and one of the 57^a Squadriglia. The 58^a Squadriglia took off from Derna N1 at 07:55 and arrived over the Royal Navy ships at around 10:00 where they unloaded forty 100 kilos bombs. A group of seven Gladiators tried to intercept after the bombing but was left behind while AA was reported as extremely intense and precise.
The second group led by Capitano Musch arrived over the fleet just to find all the enemy fighters already alerted and ready for the interception. Attacked by the Gladiators and Lapsley’s Hurricane the first to go down was aircraft ‘57-7’ flown by Tenente Visentin, and Sottotenente Sartore (crew; Maresciallo Fasce, Primo Aviere Radiotelegrafista Pian, Aviere Armiere Vitolo, Aviere Scelto Motorista Innocenti). It was shot down while losing height rapidly to force-land after having been damaged when it was attacked by several Gladiators. The crew were all killed. The second aircraft to go down was the aircraft of Sottotenente Mussi of the 56^a Squadriglia with the loss of the crew. The third to be shot down was ’56-9’ flown by Tenente Lauchard of the 56^a Squadriglia, which was seriously damaged. With all the crew dead inside the second pilot Tenente Cèard (Lauchard was wounded) made a forced landing on a beach. The beach was in Egyptian territory and the two pilots were taken prisoners. The plane of Lauchard was later recovered and, taken to Alexandria, was exposed as a war prize on Ismailia Square. Lauchard left a realistic narration of his capture where he told that he was transported to the airport of Sidi El Barrani where he was taken to the Officer’s Mess where an Intelligence Officer examined him. Lauchard told him only his name and rank and the amused British Officer showed him a chart where all the units of Regia Aeronautica were recorded with airbase, number of planes and names of the crew chiefs. There his name already was, written on a tag that the Intelligence Officer removed. Later the RAF officers offered a drink to him and he met a young Flight Lieutenant that around ten days before was shot down by Italian fighters and obliged to bale out. The British pilot told Lauchard that while descending in his parachute an Italian fighter pointed on him but instead of opening fire he passed near him weaving with his arm. It seems that the pilot was almost surely Flight Lieutenant 'Pat' Pattle.
The two surviving Savoias ran for home but only Capitano Musch arrived back at Derna, with the aircraft damaged and a wounded crewman (Primo Aviere Motorista Falzoni). The other S.79 flown by Sottotenente Venosta and Marsciallo Breda was almost shot down by the fighters when a cloud saved them. They were however obliged to force land at T3 where the plane was written off as a consequence of the damage suffered. The 10^o Stormo’s records reported that three of their numbers where shot down by a single Hurricane that, hidden inside the Gladiator formation, attacked with quick passes of its guns but always remaining out of range of the Italian return fire.

Ten days later on 27 August 1940, Young unfortunately was killed when his 824 Squadron Swordfish crashed at the Fleet Air Station at Dekheila, Alexandria.

On 11 September, he was posthumously mentioned in despatches.

At the time of his death, Young had claimed one shared victory, this one being claimed while flying Gloster Sea Gladiator.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1940
	17/08/40	1/3	S.79 (a)	Shared destroyed	Sea Gladiator	N5567	Bardia-Alexandria	HMS Eagle

Biplane victories: 1 shared destroyed.
TOTAL: 1 shared destroyed.
(a) RAF and FAA claimed six S.79s and 1 probable for one damaged Gladiator. The 10^o Stormo aircraft lost three S.79s and got two more damaged.

Sources:
Fighters over the Desert - Christopher Shores and Hans Ring, 1969 Neville Spearman Limited, London
Fleet Air Arm Aircraft, 1939-1945 - Ray Sturtivant, kindly provided by Mark E. Horan
Malta: The Hurricane Years 1940-41 - Christopher Shores and Brian Cull with Nicola Malizia, 1987 Grub Street, London, ISBN 0-89747-207-1
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The London Gazette
Additional information kindly provided by Mark E. Horan and Ludovico Slongo.