Ken Young
Kenneth George Young FAcSS FRHistS (3 January 1943 – 20 February 2019) was a British political scientist and historian who was Professor of Public Policy at King's College London in its Department of War Studies. Earlier he was instrumental in the creation of the Department of Political Economy at KCL in 2010, and was its founding head of department. Educated at the London School of Economics, Young was a research officer with the influential Greater London Group during his time there. Young taught at several institutions prior to coming to KCL, including the University of Kent at Canterbury; the University of Bristol, where he was a founding editor of the interdisciplinary-oriented journal Policy & Politics and where the annual Ken Young Best Paper Prize is named after him; the University of Birmingham, where he was director of the Institute of Local Government Studies; and at Queen Mary and Westfield College of the University of London, where he was head of the Department of Politics and Vice-Principal. Young is most known for his work in urban studies and policy studies, specially with regard to local government in England. He was also involved in the evidence-based policy movement, including serving as director of the Economic and Social Research Council's UK Centre for Evidence Based Policy and Practice and co-founding the journal Evidence & Policy. He served on several governmental bodies, in particular being director of research for the Widdicombe Committee during 1985–86. Late in his career, he shifted his focus towards security studies and became a historian of the early Cold War. One of his journal articles in that field was awarded a Moncado Prize by the Society for Military History. Early life and education Young was from Christchurch, Hampshire (now Dorset), born to a working-class family for whom education was not a priority. He left school at age 15, without any qualifications. After enlisting in the Royal Air Force, he was stationed at RAF Halton as an armament engineer, but back problems cut his service short. When he returned home, he obtained tutoring in several subjects by a local librarian, and was able to gain A-level qualifications. With those qualifications Young gained admission to the London School of Economics, from which he earned bachelor's and master's degrees. While pursuing his doctoral studies, Young was a research officer with the Greater London Group, a research centre – led by William A. Robson – within LSE for the study of London government, in the late 1960s. One later history has used Young as an example of a researcher from the group who went on to "academic fame". Young also taught in the sociology department at Goldsmiths' College before coming back to LSE and serving as a research officer with the Department of Government. He then completed his PhD thesis, entitled The London municipal society 1894–1963: a study in Conservatism and local government, under the supervision of George W. Jones, and was awarded his doctorate from LSE in 1974. Academic career in public policy