[1] Joining the British Army, he served in the Korean War with the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders.

Subsequently, he was initially selected to stand for the Kinross and West Perthshire seat in a by-election in late 1963, but agreed to stand aside to allow the new Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home the chance to enter the House of Commons.

[1] Following in the footsteps of his great-grandfather the 1st Viscount, Younger became Member of Parliament for Ayr in 1964 and served as Margaret Thatcher's Secretary of State for Scotland for seven years.

He was created a life peer as Baron Younger of Prestwick, of Ayr in the District of Kyle and Carrick, on 7 July 1992, five years before succeeding to the viscountcy.

[3] Younger became Chancellor of Edinburgh's Napier University in 1993, and was Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland for 2001 and 2002.