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Sir George Frederick Milne

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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"SIR GEORGE FREDERICK MILNE (1866-), British general, was born Nov. 5 1866 and joined the Royal Artillery in 1885. He served in the Nile Expedition of 1898, and on the staff in S. Africa throughout the war of 1899-1902, for which he was promoted brevet lieutenant-colonel and given the D.S.O. He was afterwards almost continuously on the staff until 1913, and was promoted colonel in 1905. In 1913 he became commander of the artillery of the 4th Div., with which he went out to France in 1914. He was soon promoted major-general for distinguished service, and after some months on the staff on the western front was given, in July 1915, command of the 27th Div. which, three months later, he took out to the Salonika theatre. At the end of the year he was placed in charge of an army corps there. In May 1916 Milne, who had been given the K.C.B. for his services, was advanced to the command of the British forces in Macedonia, and he occupied this responsible position under the orders of three successive French commanders-in-chief until the end of the struggle. Little progress was made during the ensuing two years, the situation scarcely lending itself to the prosecution of effectual offensive operations, and the British military authorities at home being throughout opposed to the using-up of resources in this theatre. Milne, however, filled a difficult position with unfailing tact and sound judgment, and, when a general advance at last took place in the autumn of 1918 after Bulgarian powers of resistance had become spent, the forces under his personal command contributed appreciably to the bringing about of the final victory. He had been promoted lieutenant-general in 1917 and he was, on conclusion of hostilities, given the G.C.M.G. He remained in charge of the British forces in the Near East and about the Black Sea until 1920, and his services received further recognition in 1919 by his being promoted full general.