S. R. Milner was born in Dodsworth, a village near Barnsley, Yorkshire, on 22 August 1875. His father, Samuel Wilkinson Milner, was an agent, or ‘factor’ for certain collieries in that district; he married a Miss Ann Roslington and founded a family of four daughters, and one son, the youngest child. During Milner’s infancy the family removed to Retford on the borders of Sherwood Forest and in due time the boy was entered at the Retford Grammar School, a small but ancient Edward Vlth foundation. Here, by good fortune, the headmaster, though irascible, was interested in science and able to take an interest in a boy of scientific tendencies. He awarded him a Headmaster’s Prize of a microscope for he had become a keen naturalist. But Milner’s mind soon turned to physical science, and the headmaster, seeing that the boy had already out-distanced all the others, provided him with physics textbooks and a quiet room where he could be alone and read and devour their contents. A science class of one pupil, without a master. He was not greatly interested in games but he was a powerful swimmer, and a great walker, exploring the forest, tree climbing and bird’s-nesting. Indeed his interest in birds became so great that he built quite a large aviary in the back yard of his parents’ home.
Samuel Roslington Milner, 1875-1958
