The papers were presented in 1949 and 1965 by Captain A.J.F. Milne Home, R.N. They consist of logs, 1870 to 1875, 1879 to 1881 and 1889 to 1893, and a notebook of events in Egypt in 1882. A section of papers is devoted to the Zulu War. For Milne's later career there are copies of correspondence with Lord Charles Beresford, 1910, and letters and papers relating to the Mediterranean command, 1913 to 1914. There is a detailed section on the escape of the Goeben and the Breslau, including signal logs, telegrams received from the Admiralty, diaries, official correspondence and press cuttings. There are also a number of uncompleted private diaries, 1870, 1879, 1886, 1913 to 1919, and personal letters, 1879 to 1936.

Administrative / biographical background
Milne, son of Sir Alexander Milne (q.v.) entered the Navy in 1869 and served in the Channel and the Mediterranean in the Trafalgar and then in the Royal Alfred, flagship in the North America and West Indies Station. He went to the Sirius, Newfoundland Division of the Station, in 1873 and afterwards to the Raleigh in the Channel, West Indies and at the Cape of Good Hope. In 1875 he became a sub-lieutenant and a lieutenant in the following year. He next joined the Tourmaline, Cape Station, transferring later to the Active and the Boadicea. During the Zulu War of 1879 he served with the Naval Brigade. Between 1879 and 1882 he was in the Minotaur in the Channel, going then to the Mediterranean, and once again serving on shore during the Egyptian operation. Having been promoted to commander in 1884, Milne served in the Royal Yacht before going again to the Channel Squadron in the Minotaur, 1886. He turned over to the Northumberland, also in the Channel Squadron, 1887 to 1889. From 1889 to 1893 he commanded the Royal Yacht Osborne, being promoted to captain in 1891. After service in the Mediterranean and the Channel, he became a rear-admiral in 1904 and second-in-command, Atlantic Fleet, in 1905. He commanded the Second Division of the Home Fleet until 1910. In 1912 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, his term of office expiring soon after the outbreak of war in 1914; short as his period of office was during the hostilities, it included the escape of the Goeben and the Breslau into Turkish waters. Consequently, Milne was not employed again, his appointment to the Nore being cancelled. Despite his vigorous efforts to justify his conduct, Milne was unable to reverse this decision. He wrote a book defending his actions, 'The flight of the Goeben and Breslau' (London, 1914). Some of these papers are reproduced in E.W.R. Lumby ed., 'Policy and Operations in the Mediterranean, 1912-1914'.