Young was born in Halesowen, West Midlands. His father was a doctor and his mother also came from a medical family so it was natural that Francis trained at the University of Birmingham to become a physician. He started practice at Brixham, Devon, in 1907 and married the following year. His wife was a singer and he accompanied her as well as setting poems to music for her. During the First World War he saw service in Africa in the Medical Corps but was invalided out in 1918, no longer able to practice medicine. The couple went to live in Capri until 1929 but travelled widely, including trips to South Africa, the United States and summers in the Lake District of England. They returned to live in England from 1932 and settled at Craycombe House, Fladbury, Worcestershire. At the end of Second World War he moved to South Africa, dying in Cape Town in 1954. His ashes were returned to England and are in Worcester Cathedral. Only after working for a while as a doctor did he turn to writing. His first successful book was Portrait of Clare (1927), which won the Tait Black memorial prize. Most of his works have a very English feel to them. Like many authors he uses the places and occupations he knew as the backdrops for his work. There is much description of the sea, war and medical practice set in places as far apart as the Midlands and West Country of England and South Africa. His first published novel Deep Sea (1914) has Brixham as a background while Portrait of Clare is set in the West Midlands, as are several of his works from this period. The Iron Age (1916) is set partly in Ludlow, Shropshire.
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