York was born in Fulmer, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the son of Florence Edith May (née Chown), a musician; and Joseph Gwynne Johnson, a Llandovery-born Welsh ex-Royal Artillery British Army officer and executive with Marks & Spencer department stores [REF].
He met photographer Patricia McCallum in 1967 when she was assigned to photograph him, and they married on 27 March 1968, York's 26th birthday.