Young spent the first seven years of his life in Cranhill. After the war William worked as a yard man for a builder and then as a postman. In 1940 William joined the Royal Air Force serving in World War II as a flight engine mechanic. Prior to moving to Cranhill, William worked first as a wheel boy in a rope works and then as a machine/saw operator in an asbestos/cement business. Cranhill was a tough, working-class suburb with high unemployment. In the 1950s, Young's father, William Young (1911–1985), his mother, Margaret (1913–1988 maiden name also Young), and his elder seven siblings lived at 6 Skerryvore Road in the Cranhill district of Glasgow in Scotland.
