Thomas Milner (1893-1917 Clowne) My great uncle Thomas Milner was the youngest of ten children born to Benjamin Milner and Martha Raiton and was born in Clowne, Derbyshire, in 1893. Benjamin and Martha lost two children before the war, Benjamin Milner (1876) died as an infant and in 1903 Annie Milner died of scarlet fever aged only twelve. In the 1911 census Thomas was the last child still living in his parents’ home of Hazelmere Farm, Creswell and was also working on the farm. However; by the time he joined up in 1914 he had begun working in the gardens at Welbeck Abbey. He joined the army during the first year of the war and became #12568 Thomas Milner 2nd Battalion, Sherwood Foresters, rising to the rank of corporal. He was wounded in the thigh during the landing in France but recovered from that and returned to his unit. He was killed on the 11th March 1917. He is buried in grave 1.M.44 in Philosophe British Military Cemetery, Mazingarbe, Pas de Calais, France. He died aged 23. His brother, 71272 Joseph Milner, my grandfather, was killed on July 1st 1917 but there is no known grave. The final enlisted brother, 63144 William Milner was wounded in the buttocks on April 22nd 1918 and was returned to the UK but died of wounds in Huddersfield hospital on 15th of May 1918. He was buried Elmton Churchyard (St Peter) Derbyshire. Thomas is also remembered on the Elmton, Derbyshire war memorial, a plaque in the Estate Chapel, Welbeck Abbey, on his parents memorial in Elmton church yard, on a plaque in Creswell church to the five Creswell parishioners killed in the war (including the three Milner brothers). Peter Milner 2014

Peter Milner