A true hero on and off the field

As we celebrate the 150 years of Hamilton Tiger-Cats history as the oldest football team, amateur or otherwise, in North America a number of interesting stories have come to light.
One is of James Vernon Young, who was known throughout his life by his nickname Billy, was born on October 13, 1891 in Hamilton, and played for the Hamilton Tigers.
The year was 1913, and Billy signed up to do battle with the Tigers against their arch rivals, the Toronto Argonauts among others. He was not a big man, he stood five feet, seven inches tall, had a fair complexion, and blue eyes and brown hair.
That year, 1913, that the Ontario Rugby Football Union decided to place numbers on the backs of the players’ jerseys.  Thank goodness they did, or we would never have been able to determine the exploits of Dundas’s Art Wilson, as he scored four touchdowns, three by rushing and a fourth on a fumbled recovery in that Grey Cup Game.
Billy played centre scrimmage (centre by today’s standards) for The Tigers that year. His number eight was easily discernible on that overcast and slippery November 29th day when Hamilton under the direction of head coach Liz Mariot ran roughshod over Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club 44-2 on the Hamilton AAA Grounds.  Toronto’s lone two points came from kicker Hugh Gall.
“My father (David Miller) told the story of going into Sam Manson’s Sporting Goods store because Sam had played on the same team, as his father.  He asked Sam how good a player his father was. Being a kid he was proud that his dad (Billy) had played for the Tigers. Sam’s response was ‘No, he wasn’t a very good athlete, but he tried really hard,’ laughed Bob.
Manson, who founded his well known sporting goods store in 1922, was a renowned local athlete, sportsman, businessman, soldier, and later city politician.  He played baseball, basketball, was a rowing champion, however it was in football, in which he excelled.
But, there is more to this story. The following year, World War I, “The Great War” broke out, and Billy felt compelled to enlist with the 13th Battalion (the ancestors of today’s RHLIs). Coincidentally, it was a team from this regiment, the 13th Battalion that played in the Hamilton Foot Ball Club’s (Tiger-Cats) first ever game on December 18, 1869.
Young headed to Valcartier, Quebec for Attestation with the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force and overseas deployment via Halifax.
Billy, 22, resided on James Street South in Hamilton and gave as his occupation that of being a manufacturer.  After high school graduation, he attended Upper Canada College in Toronto where his football career began.  He spent three years playing for the Royal Military College in Kingston, and was a member of the 13th Royal Regiment for a year. He spent two more years at MIT before returning home to the family business.
He enlisted on September 25th, 1914 and was given the rank of Lieutenant, and assigned to the 8th Battery, 3rd Brigade of the Canadian Field Artillery.  Young headed to England on October 3, 1914.
He was listed in action in France until September 15, 1915.  He suffered a gunshot wound to the thigh on April 24, 1915, and was sent to Miss Pollock’s Hospital in London, England for rehabilitation.
While he was hospitalized in England his parents, James Mason and Georgina Young, decided to pay him a visit.  Unfortunately, the voyage was very climatic for them and Billy.
On May 7th, the RMS Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat 11 miles off the southern coast of Ireland taking 1,200 passengers, including the Youngs, down with it.  They were last seen by witnesses jumping hand-in-hand into the North Sea.  James Mason had been a co-founder with his father, John, of the giant Hamilton Cotton Company at the corner of Barton and Mary Streets in the 1880s.
James Vernon was discharged from military hospital on June 12, 1915, and placed on Medical Leave with permission to proceed to Canada.  The Medical Board in Canada then extended his leave to December 23, 1915, and subsequently game him permission to resign, which he did on January 12, 1916.  It is assumed that this occurred, so that he and his brother, Allan V. (Pete) could keep the family business operating.
On October 18th 1919, the Prince of Wales visited Hamilton and honoured surviving Hamilton Tigers with medals, and dedicated a cairn at the HAAA Grounds in remembrance of the Tigers who died in World War I.
James Vernon and Allan retired from the Hamilton Cotton Company in the early 1950s, and turned it over to the younger members of the clan, (Bob’s father) and his two brothers, William and Ben.