Nancy Hulston, MA
Adjunct Associate Professor of the History of Medicine and Archivist
Anthony L. Kovac, MD
Professor of Anesthesiology
Kansas University School of Medicine

Lindsay Stephen Milne was born to Geroge and Jane Milne in Montrose, Scotland, on May 8, 1883, where his father was a wheat broker. Milne graduated from the Montrose Academy in 1899, after studying mathematics, English, Latin and Greek. In addition, he was fluent in French, German, Gaelic and English, due, it was said, to many bilingual dinner-time conversations with his parents and siblings.

Under-aged, Milne unsuccessfully tried to run away from home and join the British Army to fight in the Boer War. Caught and returned to his parents, he later enrolled at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, graduating in 1904. Serving as an instructor in Pathology and Medicine, he remained at Edinburgh until 1908, at which time he achieved the status of Member of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. In 1908, he left Edinburgh to do pathology research at the Russell Sage Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City. He also conducted research in Vienna, Panama, Costa Rica, Brazil, South Africa, Paris and Berlin. Milne was a well-known contributor to the medical literature of the time, especially in the fields of hepatology and arthritis. Through this work, in 1912, he came to the attention of the seven-year-old University of Kansas School of Medicine at which time he was recruited as chair of the section of Internal Medicine under the Department of Medicine. Thus, Milne emigrated from Scotland to the United States on board the RMS Celtic arriving at Ellis Island on April 4, 1909. He continued on to Kansas City to assume his position in internal medicine, petitioned for naturalization November 24, 1909 and was granted U.S. citizenship on December 20, 1915.

Lt. Col. Lindsay Stephen Milne, MD, MRCP (Edinburgh), FACP

Milne held his position at the Kansas University School of Medicine until he enlisted in the U S Army medical corps two days after the United States entered World War I in April, 1917. For a brief time after his enlistment, Milne served on the Mexican border. Along with Dr. John Binnie, Milne helped organize Base Hospital # 28 in Kansas City, and then shipped overseas with the hospital staff to Limoges, France, where he was ultimately promoted to lieutenant colonel. After Binnie had a stroke and was invalided out, he became the commander of the hospital. During World War I, Base Hospital #28 was a 2,500 bed general hospital comprised mostly of physicians and nurses recruited from the University of Kansas and the Kansas City area in 1917. The hospital operated at Limoges, France, from July 1918 through the end of January 1919 with approximately 10,000 total admissions.

Base Hospital #28 in France, with Limoges Cathedral in the background

After arrival at Base Hospital #28, Milne, impressed by the quality of patient care given by the nursing staff stated, “The spirit of the nurses was magnificent. In spite of handicaps and work of the most trying type, they gave everything they could in care for the benefit of patients. It was only by their loyal support and professional skill that Base 28 was able to make the record it did in returning its patients, fit and sound, in such large percentage.”

According to one of the technicians of the hospital, Milne “ . . . was the most hard-working and earnest one in our group. He never spared himself and never took a day off. He watched out for the rest of us, but would not spare himself.” Milne was honorably discharged from military service on April 30, 1919.

Milne relaxing with colleagues at Base Hospital #28 in France

Upon returning to Kansas City, after the war’s end, Milne entered private practice and specialized in Internal Medicine. He married Marian Young on December 15, 1925, and they had twin daughters and a son. He became a beloved family friend to all his patients, wealthy and poor. Considered to be an “all around family doctor” he was especially fond of the children he encountered through his practice.

Milne’s practice grew quite large over the years, and many of his friends and patients became concerned about his health. An avid hunter and fisherman, he was often encouraged by patients to pursue these activities, as they wished to support him in pursuit of some rest and relaxation. According to his obituary, “He would go happily along thinking it was doing his patient some good.” Professional colleagues of Milne’s admired him. He was considered to be “unassuming and diffident,” and by one fellow physician, “one of the kindest and most gracious persons as well as being an outstanding medical man.”

Milne’s professional accomplishments included Fellow in the American College of Physicians; Diplomate of the Board of Internal Medicine, member of American Medical Association, the Society of Pathologists and Bacteriologists of Great Britain and Ireland, the American Pathologic Society, the New York Pathologic Society, the Harvey Society, Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, the Biological Society of New York, the Kansas City Academy of Medicine, Kansas City Southwest Clinical Society, and the Jackson County Medical Society. His hospital affiliations included: University of Kansas, Christian Hospital, Research Hospital, General Hospital, St. Luke’s, and Menorah Hospitals, all in Kansas City. Dr. Milne died on September 17, 1944, at his home in Fairway, Kansas.

Images are from the National WW-I Museum at Liberty Memorial and the Western Historical Manuscript Collection, both in Kansas City, Missouri; and the archives of the Kansas University School of Medicine, in Kansas City,Kansas.