Reginald (known as Rex) Hackworth Young was born on 1 August 1905, he was the son of George Edward Young and Henrietta Young. He married Katherine Maitland Davidson.

He went into engineering and had a distinguished career working principally on fans and ventilation. He was a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers, the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and the Institute of Heating and Ventilating Engineers. He wrote a foreward to the 1975 edition of his uncle, Robert Young's book Timothy Hackworth and the Locomotive and was present at the opening of the Timothy Hackworth Museum in Shildon. He died on 19 October 1977.