Brigadier Desmond Young OBE, MC was an Australian-born British Army officer, newspaper publisher and writer. He travelled widely during his youth, accompanying his father in his work as a maritime salvage expert. He attended the University of Oxford but was asked to leave after he failed to attend a single lecture. Young found work in Malaya as a rubber planter and operated a nightclub in London. Soon after the beginning of the First World War he joined the British Army, serving as an officer in the King's Royal Rifle Corps. He was wounded in action and won a Military Cross in June 1918. After the War Young worked as a newspaper reporter, editor and publisher in the South African Cape Times and the Indian Allahabad Pioneer.

The Cape Times is an English-language morning newspaper owned by Independent News & Media SA and published in Cape Town, South Africa.