BORN HULL 28/11/1892. YOUNGER SON OF THOMAS GEORGE MILNER (1850-1944) AND ELIZABETH FRANCES DALTON (1853-1938). HE HAD ONE BROTHER AND SEVEN SISTERS. HIS FATHER WAS HULL CITY COUNCIL’S, CHIEF TREASURER.
HE WAS EDUCATED AT BEVERLEY AND HULL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS AND PLAYED FOR HULL’S FIRST NEWLAND FOOTBALL CLUB, FORMED IN 1910, AGED 17.
TOM WORKED IN FARMING AND WAS AN EXPERT IN HORSES. HE IS RECORDED AS A FARM PUPIL WORKING AT ABBEYVILLE, BEVERLEY IN THE 1911 CENSUS.
HE ENLISTED IN THE ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY, ON 15/07/1915. POSTED TO FRANCE OCTOBER 1915. SERVED AS CORPORAL, IN THE 119TH ROYAL GARRISON, HEAVY BATTERY. KILLED IN ACTION, AT BOURLON WOOD, 26/09/1918, AGED 25.
HIS COMMANDING OFFICER WROTE OF HIM. ” I KNEW HIM INTIMATELY. HIS APPLICATION AND ZEAL WERE OUTSTANDING, SO TOO WERE HIS GOOD NATURE AND CHEERINESS. HE WORKED HARDER THAN ANYONE AND HAD THE CHEERIEST LAUGH IN THE BATTERY. I PERSONALLY SHALL MISS HIM” A COLLEAGUE WROTE, “WE LOST A TRUE HEARTED MAN WHEN TOM WAS SENT OFF, AND A GOOD N.C.O., AND A MAN WHO SET A SPLENDID EXAMPLE TO ALL HIS COMRADES. WE SHALL MISS HIS CHEERINESS AND GOOD FELLOWSHIP MORE THAN I CAN SAY.”
HIS NAME IS RECORDED ON THE HULL GRAMMAR SCHOOL WW1 MEMORIAL. HE WAS UNMARRIED AND LEFT £455 TO HIS FATHER IN HIS WILL, LIVING AT 283 BEVERLEY ROAD, HULL (HIS PROBATE ADDRESS).
HE IS BURIED AT MORY ABBEY MILITARY CEMETERY, MORY, PAS DE CALAIS, FRANCE. HIS GRAVE INSCRIPTION, READS, “GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS”.
ON 21/09/2018, THE VETERANS NEWLAND FC, IN HULL, CYCLED 100 MILES TO FRANCE, TO LAY A WREATH ON THE GRAVE OF THOMAS GEORGE MILNER, PICTURED IN THE ORIGINAL NEWLAND FC BELOW.
