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Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London

MILNE, FM George Francis, 1st Baron Milne of Salonika and of Rubislaw, County Aberdeen (1866-1948)

IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0099 KCLMA Milne

Held at: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London

Title: MILNE, FM George Francis, 1st Baron Milne of Salonika and of Rubislaw, County Aberdeen (1866-1948)

Date(s): 1914-1948

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 0.13 cubic metres (8 boxes including 2 outsize; 5 outsize packages)

Name of creator(s): Milne | George Francis | 1866-1948 | 1st Baron Milne of Salonika and of Rubislaw, County Aberdeen | Field Marshal

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born, 1866; educated at the Gymnasium, Old Aberdeen, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; commissioned into the Royal Artillery, 1885; service with 1/Q Battery (renumbered 38 Battery in 1889), Royal Field Artillery, Trimulgherri, India, 1885-1889; service with D Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, Aldershot, Hampshire, 1889-1891; service with C Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, Meerut, India, 1891-1895; Capt, 1895; service with 2 Company, Southern Division, Royal Garrison Artillery, Malta, 1895-1896; Battery Capt, 37 Battery, Royal Field Artillery, Hilsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire, 1896-1897; service in the Sudan, 1898; Battle of Omdurman, Sudan, Sep 1898; graduated from Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, 1899; served in Second Boer War, South Africa, 1899-1902; Maj, 1900; Deputy Assistant Adjutant General, South Africa, 1900-1902; Brevet Lt Col, 1902; awarded DSO, 1902; Deputy Quartermaster General (Intelligence) and General Staff Officer 2, Army Headquarters, 1903-1907; Brevet Col, 1905; Officer Commanding, 59 Battery, Royal Field Artillery, Brighton, Sussex, 1907-1908; General Staff Officer 2, North Midland Div, Territorial Force, Northern Command, Lichfield, Staffordshire, 1908-1909; Col, 1909; General Staff Officer 1, 6 Div, Irish Command, Cork, 1909-1913; awarded CB, 1912; Brig Gen, Royal Artillery, 4 Div, Eastern Command, Woolwich, 1913-1914; served in World War One, 1914-1918; Brig Gen, Royal Artillery, 4 Div, BEF (British Expeditionary Force), France, 1914-1915; Brig Gen, General Staff, 3 Corps, BEF (British Expeditionary Force), France, 1915; Maj Gen, 1915; Maj Gen, General Staff, 2 Army, BEF, Western Front, 1915; General Officer Commanding 27 Div, BEF, France, and Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Macedonia, 1915; temporary Lt Gen, 1915; General Officer Commanding 16 Corps, Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Salonika, 1915-1916; General Officer Commanding-in-Chief British Salonika Force and British Army of the Black Sea, 1916-1920; Lt Gen, 1917; created KCB, 1918; temporary Gen, 1918-1920; Col Commandant, Royal Artillery, 1918-1948; created KCMG, 1919; created GCMG, 1919; Gen, 1920; Lieutenant of the Tower of London, 1920-1923; Freeman of the City of Aberdeen, 1921; General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Command, 1923-1926; Aide de Camp General to HM King George V, 1923-1927; Chief of the Imperial General Staff, 1926-1933; created GCB, 1927; FM, 1928; Master Gunner, St James's Park, 1929-1946; retired, 1933; created 1st Baron Milne of Salonika and Rubislaw, County Aberdeen, 1933; Governor and Constable of the Tower of London, 1933-1938; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; service in the Home Guard and Civil Defence, 1940-1944; Col Commandant, Pioneer Corps, 1940-1945; military correspondent for The Sunday Chronicle, 1941-1944; died, 1948.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers, 1914-1948, of FM George Francis Milne, 1st Baron Milne of Salonika and of Rubislaw, County Aberdeen, including personal ephemera, photographs, and documents relating to his career during World War One and after. The collection includes typescript War Diaries, Army of Black Sea, 1915-1917, containing an official daily record of events; file on Salonika, 1916, containing typescript messages concerning military events; typescript Summary of Information, General Staff (Operations), Army of Black Sea, Oct 1916-Dec 1918; typescript Despatches of General Officer Commanding, Nov 1918-1920; file, 1925-1936, on defence issues including printed and typescript papers on mechanisation and on the role of the RAF and Army; telegrams and letters of appointment and congratulation on various appointments, honours and decorations, 1918-1948; papers relating to royal events, including the coronation of HM King George VI, 1937; memorabilia, including winged statue of victory given to Milne by the Greek government and desk set, incorporating bullets, inscribed 'LONG LIVE ENGLAND LONG LIVE YUGOSLAVES SALONICA 1918'; papers relating to Milne's death in 1948, including obituaries.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archive Services.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

Collection level description available in reading room at Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives and online at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma; summary box list available in hard copy in the reading room.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Placed in the Centre by Milne's family in 1980.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

King's College London, Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, holds papers of Capt Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart, including correspondence with Milne, 1925-1932, letter from Lt Gen Sir Hugh Jeudwine to Milne, 1932, and correspondence between Milne and R Adm Sir Christopher Douglas Bonham Carter, 1941-1942 (Ref: LH 1/512), articles by Liddell Hart entitled 'FM Lord Milne', The Daily Telegraph, Feb 1933, and 'Seven years: the regime of FM Lord Milne', English Review, Apr 1933 (Ref: LH 10/1933), remarks by Milne as Chief of the Imperial General Staff on 1 Div exercises, Aldershot Command, 1926 (Ref: LH 11/1926/6), address by Milne as Chief of the Imperial General Staff, to senior officers of the Experimental Mechanised Force, Tidworth, Hampshire, Sep 1927 (Ref: LH 11/1927/5-16), note by Liddell Hart on various personalities including Milne, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, 1929 (Ref: LH 11/1929/20), notes by Liddell Hart on Milne's regime as Chief of the Imperial General Staff, 1926-1933 [1933] (Ref: LH 11/1933/40), observation by Liddell Hart, 1934, entitled 'Samples of the Military Mind 1914-1918', on discussion with Maj Gen Henry Karslake, Commander, Baluchistan District, India, and Col Rawnsley on World War One, and in particular the conduct of Milne (Ref: LH 11/1934/36), notes by Liddell Hart, 1937, including Milne (Ref: LH 11/1937/58), comment, 1940, by Gen Sir William Edmund Ironside, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, including Milne (Ref: LH 11/1940/15e), extracts from newspapers and by other commentators, including Milne, on the war in the Soviet Union, 1941 (Ref: LH 11/1941/50), undated notes by Liddell Hart on the inter-war period, consisting principally of quotations, including Milne (Ref: LH 11/ND/120-171), newspaper articles by Milne as military correspondent of The Sunday Chronicle, 1941-1944 (Ref: LH 15/4/453); papers of Maj Gen George Mackintosh Lindsay, including a memorandum by Milne as Chief of the Imperial General Staff on the future organisation of the Royal Tank Corps in Egypt, Apr 1928 (Ref: LH 15/12/7); papers of Brig Gen Sir James Edward Edmonds, including fifteen letters by Milne, 1909-1939 (Ref: Edmonds); papers of FM Sir William (Robert) Robertson, 1st Bt, including telegrams to and from Milne, Salonika, 1916-1917 (Ref: Robertson 4/4), private correspondence between Robertson and Milne, 1916-1918 (Ref: Robertson 7/5), letter from Robertson to Milne commenting on the Balkan campaign, relations with the French, and problems with the health of the troops (Ref: Robertson 8/3); papers of Gen Sir Alexander John Godley, including correspondence with Milne relating to Salonika and Milne's desire to succeed Godley as Governor of Gibraltar, 1916-1933 (Ref: Godley 3/180-182); papers of Lt Gen Sir Thomas Jacomb Hutton, including pamphlet by Hutton, 'Field-Marshal The Lord Milne', on Milne's death [1948] (Ref: Hutton 4/6). Detailed catalogues of these collections, except for Edmonds, are available online at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma.

Imperial War Museum, Department of Documents, holds papers of FM Sir Henry Hughes Wilson, including correspondence with Milne, 1918-1922 (Ref: HHW).

Publication note:

Uncle George: Field Marshal Lord Milne of Salonika and Rubislaw by Graham Nicol (Reedminster Publications, London, 1976).

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Compiled by Iain Mutch; revised by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.