MacGillivray Milne

Who was MacGillivray Milne?

MacGillivray Milne was a United States Navy Captain, and the 27th Governor of American Samoa from January 20, 1936, to June 3, 1938. After graduating from the United States Naval Academy, Milne served many posts in the Navy, including heading the Department of Modern Languages at the Naval Academy. He was a veteran of a large numbers of conflicts, including the Philippine–American War, the United States occupation of Veracruz, and both World War I and World War II. Milne commanded a number of ships, but his last one was the battleship USS Arizona . After the ship struck a private fishing vessel and killed two civilians, Milne was court-martialed and stripped of three grades which determined his eligibility for promotion. As Governor, Milne pushed for the modernization of American Samoa, and sought increased federal aid for the islands; his efforts to obtain additional funding for the island largely ended in failure. He died in 1959 at the Naval Hospital Oakland, and was buried in Sparkill, Rockland County, NY.