Archibald Berkeley Milne, Second Baronet

Admiral SIR Archibald Berkeley Milne, Second Baronet, G.C.V.O., K.C.B., Royal Navy (2 June, 1855 – 5 July, 1938) was a Royal Navy officer chiefly remembered for his assocation with the Court and his involvement in the escape of the German warships Goeben and Breslau at the start of the First World War.

Early Life & Career

Archibald Berkeley Milne (who as of 27 February, 1901, informed the Admiralty that he "desires to be called - Sir A. Berkeley Milne") was the only surviving son of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alexander Milne (1806 - 1896) and of Euphemia (died 1889), daughter of Archibald Cochran of Ashkirk, Roxburgh. Berkeley Milne's father twice served as Senior Naval Lord at the Admiralty, and his grandfather, Sir David Milne, commanded ships of the line in the Napoleonic Wars and retired an Admiral of the White. Milne entered the Royal Navy as a Naval Cadet on 3 May, 1869 and passed out on 20 July, 1870. He gained three months' seatime for a Second Class in Study, three months' for a First Class in Seamanship, and three months' for "'Very Good' conduct". On 23 August he was appointed to Duke of Wellington, and he was rated Midshipman on 20 October. He served under Sir E. G. Fanshawe in the flagship Royal Alfred on the North America and West Indies station, and under Captain George Tryon in the Raleigh. He was promoted sub-lieutenant in 1875 and lieutenant in 1876, with three first-class certificates. He then joined Commodore Sullivan on the South Africa station, first in the corvette Tourmaline and then in the Active. He remained on that station for three years, being transferred to the Boadicea when Captain F. W. Richards succeeded Sullivan as commodore, but for most of the time he was lent for service on shore during the annexation of the Transkei in 1877–8 and later throughout the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. He was naval aide-de-camp to Lord Chelmsford, was wounded at the battle of Ulundi, and was mentioned in dispatches. After returning to England later in the year he joined the Minotaur, the flagship of Vice-Admiral A. W. C. Hood, in the channel squadron. In June 1882 he was appointed to the Orion in the Mediterranean, and a month later, when Admiral Anthony Hoskins left the Board of Admiralty in order to bring reinforcements during the Egyptian campaign, he became his flag lieutenant in the Penelope and was at the battle of Tell al-Kebir.

On his appointment to the royal yacht Victoria and Albert in October 1882, Milne began a career as a sea courtier. He rapidly won the affection of the prince and princess of Wales, and spent eight of the next eighteen years in royal yachts, finishing as commodore and later (1903–5) rear-admiral in charge of HM yachts.

Milne was promoted commander in 1884 and captain in 1891, and in the intervals between turns of yacht duty he was commander in the channel squadron flagships Minotaur and Northumberland (1887–9) and captain of the flagship Trafalgar (1894–6), the Venus (1897–1900) in the Mediterranean, and the Jupiter (1900–04) in the channel squadron.

In his sea-going commands Milne had shown himself competent and popular, so that after reaching flag rank in April 1904, and leaving the command of HM yachts sixteen months later, he was selected to be second in command of the Atlantic Fleet (flag in the Victorious) under Admiral Sir William May (1905–6) and of the Channel Fleet (flag in the Hibernia) under Lord Charles Beresford (1908–9). On 12 May, 1908, he was promoted to the rank of Vice-Admiral, vice Jeffreys. He was then transferred for another year to the command of the 2nd division of the Home Fleet (flag in the King Edward VII) under May.

Milne was promoted admiral in September 1911, and in November 1912 he hoisted his flag in the Good Hope, soon to be replaced by the battle cruiser Inflexible, as commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean. His appointment did not meet with universal approval and there were some who attributed it to court influence. This was particularly true of Lord Fisher, the former first sea lord. Milne had earned Fisher's enmity because of his association with Beresford and his opposition to some of Fisher's reforms.

Approach of War

On Friday, 27 June, Milne had a private audience with the Ottoman Sultan. As he left, he remarked to his dragoman (interpreter) in a loud whisper that the Sultan was "just an imbecile", a suggestion with which the dragoman (Sir Andrew Ryan) could not disagree. On 22 July the Admiralty ordered Milne to return to Chatham on 29 August in Inflexible and to hoist his flag at Admiralty House there on 30 August. Officially, he was nominated as Commander-in-Chief at the Nore on 29 August. It had been announced on 13 July that he was to succeed Sir Richard Poore on 29 August.

Post-War

He was placed on the Retired List at his own request on 12 February, 1919, "in order to facilitate the promotion of Junior Officers."

In 1921 Milne published a small book, The Flight of the Goeben and the Breslau, in which he challenged Sir Julian Corbett's account in the (official) History of the Great War: Naval Operations and the implied censure of his conduct. Milne's book set forth clearly his own account and justified the official approbation which had been repeated in the Admiralty's announcement of his retirement in 1919.

Milne was an able officer, popular in the service and in London society, where his long association with King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra made him well known. He was a keen fisherman and deer stalker and a good shot, and devoted much of his half-pay time to horticulture at his ancestral residence, Inveresk Gate, Musselburgh, Midlothian. He bequeathed a collection of rare shrubs and orchids to the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens.

Milne died in London on 5 July, 1938 at the age of eighty-three. His funeral took place at Inveresk Church, Musselburgh, on Friday, 8 July. The pall-bearers were Captain the Hon. Bertram Mitford, Sir I. H. Milne-Home, Mr. J. Cochran, Colonel A. C. P. Cochran, the Duke of Atholl, Admiral Sir A. Hotham, Mr. M. W. Soutar (Milne's butler) and Mr. J. Scott, his head gardener. Lieutenant-Commander Hunter represented the Admiralty, and wreaths were presented on behalf of the Admiralty and trustees, committee, and members of the Naval and Military Club.

Bibliography

• "Deaths" (Deaths). The Times. Wednesday, 6 July, 1938. Issue 48039, col B, pg. 1.
• "Funerals" (Deaths). The Times. Monday, 11 July, 1938. Issue 48043, col C, pg. 17.
• "Admiral Sir A. B. Milne" (Obituaries). The Times. Wednesday, 6 July, 1938. Issue 48039, col D, pg. 18.
• Milne, Sir Archibald Berkeley, Bart. (1922). The Flight of the 'Goeben' and the 'Breslau'. London: Eveleigh Nash Company.
• Ryan, Sir Andrew (1951). The Last of the Dragomans. London: Geoffrey Bles Ltd.

Papers

• Papers in the possession of the National Maritime Museum.

Service Records

• The National Archives. ADM 196/39.
• The National Archives. ADM 196/19.

Naval Offices
Preceded by Sir Edmund S. Poë	Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean 1912 - 1914	Succeeded by In abeyance until 1917