On 9 April 1917, serving with the 16th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, Private Milne participated in the Battle of Vimy Ridge during the First World War.
During the advance he crawled on hands and knees to take out a machine gun position which was inflicting heavy casualties on the Canadians.
He repeated the feat with a second machine gun position and was killed shortly thereafter.
For his actions he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
His body was never recovered and his name is engraved on the Vimy Memorial in France.
Prior to the war, Milne was a farm hand near Caron, Saskatchewan.
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 the 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.
London Gazette, no.30122, 8 June 1917