H. R. Milner

Horatio Ray Milner, CC QC (27 March 1889 – 24 May 1975)[1] was a lawyer and businessman.

Milner was born in Sackville, New Brunswick, the son of lawyer, newspaper publisher and historian William Cochrane Milner. His higher education was at Halifax, Nova Scotia where he graduated from Dalhousie University law school in 1911, following his 1909 graduation from King's College. He would return to Kings as Chancellor between 1957 and 1963.

In 1912, he was a founding partner of the Edmonton, Alberta legal firm of Milner and Steer, forerunner of today's Fraser Milner Casgrain. He would be called to military service in World War I,[2] after which he was appointed King's Counsel (later, Queen's Counsel upon the 1952 accession of Queen Elizabeth).

He became associated with various utilities and natural gas companies in Alberta, and was a founding director of Canadian Utilities.

He was married twice, first to Catherine "Rina" Bury (d. 1952), and second, in 1954, to Veronica Villiers Fitzgerald, daughter of Ernest Villiers and widow of Desmond FitzGerald, 28th Knight of Glin. Milner died in Qualicum, British Columbia, aged 86.

Milner and his second wife maintained a garden estate on British Columbia's Vancouver Island. Prince Charles and Princess Diana visited in 1986 and Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip stayed there for three days in 1987.[3] Veronica Milner died in 1998.

In 1996, two years before her death, Veronica Milner made a gift of the estate to Vancouver Island University. The university now runs the estate as the publicly accessible Milner Gardens & Woodlands[4] as a living laboratory for VIU.[5]

The H. R. Milner Generating Station near Grande Cache, Alberta was named in for H. R. Milner on its dedication in 1972.[6] Edmonton's Milner Building at 10040 104th Street, completed in 1958, was also named for him.

Milner was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1969, the year he retired.[7]

References
  1. "Alberta lawyer was prominent in gas industry (H.R. Milner obituary)". The Globe and Mail. 26 May 1975. p. 10.
  2. "Attestation paper". Archived from the original on 29 July 2012.
  3. Litwin, Grania (13 August 2016). "House Beautiful: Queen stayed here, Diana and Charles visited". Times Colonist (Victoria). TC Publication Limited Partnership. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
  4. "Milner Gardens profile".
  5. Vancouver Island University. "Milner Gardens and Woodland a living laboratory for VIU". YouTube.
  6. "Milner Power Inc". Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 13 November 2006.
  7. Order of Canada citation
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