MILNE, Brian
Brian Hurst Milne was born The House, Collingwood Road, Witham, Essex on 23 July 1933, son of Frederick Charles Milne (20 May 1901-1 October 1976), a congregational minister, and his wife Dora Mary Hurst (31 March 1904-15 September 1991), who married at Medway in 1930. Brian studied at Ipswich School of Art where he gained the National Diploma in Design for painting and lithography. During this time he worked for Geoffrey Clark (1924–2014), one of the Coventry Cathedral artists which established an early interest in stained glass, and in 1959 he became a student in the Royal College of Art stained glass department. There he studied under another Coventry Cathedral artist Lawrence Lee, eventually gaining a diploma, silver medal and post-graduate fourth year. After leaving college he moved to Colchester, Essex, and worked on a variety of private, public, and church stained-glass commissions he also started teaching at art schools. In 1966 he joined the newly formed Art/Design Group at the Greater London Council which involved working with housing and landscape architects on the design and detailing of buildings and associated open space, producing murals, sculpture, play equipment and colour schemes. In 1971 he moved to Newport Pagnell working with the planning and design team building the new city of Milton Keynes where he concentrated on architectural model making, street furniture design, being responsible for the now widely familiar perforated metal bench seat and play areas and their equipment. In 1983 he set up as a stained glass artist and amongst his commissions have been windows for Constructive Individuals self-build houses, Giffard Park Housing Co-operative in Milton Keynes, St Paul’s Church in Tadley and two Greene King public houses, The Cricketers at Oldbrook Milton Keynes and The Barn Owl at Northampton. He also undertook wood carving and metal-work commissions. Brian Hurst Milne died in December 1996 at the age of 63.