Austen Young was an ENT surgeon in Sheffield. He was born in Berwick-upon-Tweed on 16 June 1914, the son of Thomas Mean Young, a business manager, and Frances Emily née Sample. He was educated at George Watson’s College, Edinburgh, and Edinburgh University. During the Second World War he served as a captain in the RAMC, seeing action in France, Egypt, North Africa, Italy and Greece. After the war he returned to the Royal Infirmary Edinburgh as an ENT registrar. In 1948 moved south to become a locum consultant at Guy’s Hospital, before being appointed consultant ENT surgeon at Nottingham and Mansfield General hospitals and Newark Hospital. Finally, he settled in Sheffield at the Royal Infirmary, the Children’s Hospital and the Royal Hallamshire Hospital. He was appointed as an honorary lecturer in ENT surgery at Sheffield University. His lasting contribution to the literature, published in the *Journal of Laryngology and Otology*, is Young’s operation for atrophic rhinitis, where he recommended the closure of the nostrils to allow the mucous membrane to recover. He retired in 1975. For relaxation Austen was an inveterate golfer. He married Margaret Anna Patricia née Sparrow in 1952. Their three daughters, Margaret Olivia, Christine Frances and Helen Clare are respectively an occupational therapist, a nurse and a barrister. Austen Young died peacefully at home in Borth near Aberystwyth on 28 February 2005 in his 91st year.