Milborne, A. J. B., 1888-1976 : Alfred John Bidder Milborne (1888-1976) was born on 23 August 1888 in the town of Yeovil, Somersetshire, England. His father was a prosperous tailor and his mother, a Londoner by birth, had worked as a nurse at the Salisbury Infirmary in nearby Wiltshire. As a result of failing family fortunes, Milborne left school at the age of 13 and worked first on the local paper, the Western Gazette, for three years, and then for a further three years as a clerk in a Yeovil law office. In 1907 he emigrated to Winnipeg where he began a long career with the Trust and Loan Company of Canada.
During World War I, Milborne served in the Canadian 1st Division, with which he landed in France in February 1915. Mentioned in dispatches in 1915, he was commissioned in 1916, and transferred to London in 1917.
Following his discharge from the army, Milborne was again employed by the Trust and Loan Company, this time in Montreal. There he also became a member and later, a President of the St. James Literary Society.
For many years after his retirement, which he spent in Knowlton, Quebec, Milborne was a Director of the Federation Insurance Company of Canada. At Knowlton, he also served on the Select Vestry of St. Paul's Anglican Church; was a President of Knowlton Community School Association; a member of the Board of Knowlton Library; Honorary Treasurer of the Knowlton Cemetery Company; and a President of Brome Historical Society. He died at the Brome Missisquoi Perkins Hospital in Cowansville, Quebec, on 26 May 1976.
A dedicated third generation Freemason, A.J.B. Milborne was a life member of Northern Light Lodge No. 10, Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he was initiated, passed and raised in 1912. In Montreal, after the war, he affiliated with Westmount Lodge No. 76, and served as Master in 1927. He was elected District Deputy Grand Master of Montreal District No. 2 in 1930, became chairman of the Grand Lodge Committee on Jurisprudence, and was active in the Committee on Education and Research. He represented the Grand Lodge of Missouri near the Grand Lodge of Quebec for 35 years, and at the time of his death was representative of the United Grand Lodge of England near his Grand Lodge.
In other Masonic circles, Milborne was at various times Honorary Inspector-General 33 Degree of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite; Provincial Grand Master of the Royal Order of Scotland; Zerubbabel in the Royal Arch; and an anointed High Priest under the Grand Chapter of Nova Scotia. He was also a member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis, and a Master of St. Paul's Lodge No. 374, E.R.
He received his 4 Degree in Montreal Lodge of Perfection A. & A.S.R. on 24 October 1927, his 18 Degree in Hochelaga Sovereign Chapter of Rose Croix on 28 March 1929, his 32 Degree in Montreal Sovereign Consistory on 25 April 1932, and was coroneted Honorary 33 Degree in 1961.
Milborne was particularly interested in all aspects of Masonic education and research. He was a founder of the Masonic Study Club and initiated the Grand Lodge Bulletin (later The Trowel) and the series of educational bulletins; he wrote two Masonic historical plays that were produced before large Montreal audiences; and he was a founding member and President of the Canadian Masonic Research Association, to which he contributed nine scholarly papers, including "Loyalist Masons in the Maritimes."
In 1959, when the Grand Lodge of Quebec celebrated the bicentenary of the introduction of Freemasonry into that province, he provided the definitive account of those 200 years, which was published in 1960 under the title Freemasonry in the Province of Quebec, 1759-1959. He was also a member of the Blue Friars (a society limited to 20 Masonic writers of distinction) and of the Philalethes Society, as well as an honorary member of the Ontario College of the Societas Rosicruciana.
Milborne's scholarly reputation was not confined to Canada. He was also internationally well-known and much respected as a Masonic scholar. When the United Grand Lodge of England produced its 250th Anniversary volume, Grand Lodge 1717-1967, he was asked to write the section on "Overseas Development and the Military Lodges." He was a Fellow of the American Lodge of Research, for which he wrote a paper on "British Military Lodges in the American War of Independence," and, in the bicentennial year, one on "Loyalist Masons in the American Revolution." He was also a member of the Corresponding Circles of the Irish Lodge of Research, the Leicester Lodge of Research and Athenaeum Lodge No. 7455 E.R. (Durban, South Africa). One of his Masonic historical plays was presented in Durban, South Africa, and at Singpore and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
His distinguished scholarship led to his election to the Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076 E.R., London, whose membership is restricted to 40 and only extended to Masons who have done important work in the field of Masonic study or who have been distinguished in art, literature or the sciences. The only Canadian member of this prestigious Lodge, he contributed eight scholarly papers to it over a period of 21 years, as well as many shorter articles and notes. He also played a decisive part in the production in 1971 by Quatuor Coronati of "The Early French Exposures 1737-1751" and shared in the editing of The Early French Exposures 1727-1757, in addition to being editor of the 1971 publication of Lindsay's History of the Royal Order.
