William Johnstone Milne

Private William Johnstone Milne VC (21 December 1892 – 9 April 1917) was a Canadian soldier of the First World War awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously for gallantry at the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Son of David Milne and Agnes McCormick was born at 10 Anderson Street in Cambusnethan, Wishaw, Lanarkshire, Scotland. He attended local schools in Lanarkshire before emigrating to Canada in 1910, where he found employment as a farm laborer near Moose Jaw and Caron, Saskatchewan.

Milne enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force at Moose Jaw on 11 September 1915, entering service under regimental number 427586. Assigned initially to the 46th Infantry Battalion, he embarked for Britain aboard the SS Lapland in October 1915. Following basic training in England, he was drafted into the 16th Battalion (The Canadian Scottish), 3rd Infantry Brigade, 1st Canadian Division, joining his unit in the Ypres Salient in early 1916. Service records document periods of medical treatment, including hospitalization for influenza in late November 1916 at the Divisional Rest Station and two cases of gonorrhoea resulting in a nineteen-day pay stoppage.

On 9 April 1917, during the opening assault of the Battle of Vimy Ridge near Thélus, France, the advance of Milne's company was halted by machine gun fire. Crawling forward on his hands and knees, Milne approached the position, killed the crew with hand grenades, and captured the gun. As his unit reorganized to advance toward the support trench, he spotted a second machine gun post. Stalking the position in the same manner, he put the crew out of action and secured the second weapon. Milne was killed in action shortly after capturing the second gun. His body was not recovered from the battlefield.

The official citation for his Victoria Cross was published in the Second Supplement to The London Gazette on 8 June 1917:

"For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty in attack. On approaching the first objective, Pte. Milne observed an enemy machine gun firing on our advancing troops. Crawling on hands and knees, he succeeded in reaching the gun, killing the crew with bombs, and capturing the gun. On the line re-forming, he again located a machine gun in the support line, and stalking this second gun as he had done the first, he succeeded in putting the crew out of action and capturing the gun. His wonderful bravery and resource on these two occasions undoubtedly saved the lives of many of his comrades. Pte. Milne was killed shortly after capturing the second gun."

Milne is commemorated on the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in Pas-de-Calais, France. His medals: the Victoria Cross, British War Medal 1914–1920 and Victory Medal 1914–1919 are held in the collection of the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.