A. A. Milne

Alan Alexander Milne, an English writer, is most famous for creating the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for his children’s poetry. However, before those works became his defining legacy, he was chiefly a playwright. During the First World War, he served as a lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and in the Second World War, he was a captain in the Home Guard.

Milne’s son, Christopher Robin Milne, became a bookseller and was the real-life inspiration for the character Christopher Robin. The idea for Winnie-the-Pooh came to Milne after a visit to London Zoo, where his son grew fond of a tame, friendly bear named Winnipeg. Milne later gave the original manuscripts of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories to the Wren Library at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he had studied.

Born in Kilburn, London, on 18 January 1882, Milne was the son of John Vine Milne, who was born in Jamaica, and Sarah Marie Milne. He grew up at Henley House School, a small independent school run by his father, and taught himself to read at age two. One of his teachers there was H. G. Wells. Milne attended Westminster School and then Trinity College, Cambridge, on a mathematics scholarship, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics in 1903, though his true interest was writing. He edited and wrote for the student magazine *Granta*, often collaborating with his brother Kenneth under the initials AKM. His work caught the attention of the humour magazine *Punch*, where he became a contributor and later an assistant editor. A skilled cricket fielder, he played for two amateur teams made up mostly of British writers: the Allahakbarries and the Authors XI, alongside J. M. Barrie, Arthur Conan Doyle, and P. G. Wodehouse.

During World War I, Milne joined the British Army as an officer in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 4th Battalion on 1 February 1915, with his commission confirmed later that year. He served as a signals officer on the Somme from July to November 1916, but contracted trench fever and was sent back to England. After recovering, he worked as a signals instructor and then was recruited into military intelligence to write propaganda for MI7(b) from 1917 to 1918. He was discharged on 14 February 1919 and settled in Mallord Street, Chelsea, formally relinquishing his commission the following year while retaining the rank of lieutenant.

After the war, Milne wrote *Peace with Honour* (1934), a denunciation of war, though he later softened his stance with *War with Honour* (1940). During World War II, he became a prominent critic of fellow writer P. G. Wodehouse, who had been captured by the Nazis and made radio broadcasts from Berlin about his internment. Milne considered these broadcasts an act of near treason, even though they were light-hearted and mocked the Germans. Wodehouse later retaliated by creating parodies of the Christopher Robin poems in some of his stories and claimed Milne was jealous of other writers, though he added that he loved Milne’s work.

Milne married Dorothy “Daphne” de Sélincourt in 1913, and their son Christopher Robin was born in 1920. In 1925, he bought a country home, Cotchford Farm, in Hartfield, East Sussex. During World War II, he served as a captain in the Home Guard in Hartfield and Forest Row, insisting on being called “Mr. Milne” by his platoon. After a stroke and brain surgery in 1952, he became an invalid and retired to the farm. By August 1953, he seemed very old and disenchanted. He died in January 1956 at age 74.

After graduating from Cambridge in 1903, Milne contributed humorous verse and essays to *Punch*, joining the staff in 1906 and becoming an assistant editor. During this period, he published 18 plays and three novels, including the murder mystery *The Red House Mystery* (1922). His son’s birth in 1920 led to a collection of children’s poems, *When We Were Very Young* (1924), illustrated by *Punch* cartoonist E. H. Shepard. A collection of short stories for children, *A Gallery of Children*, and other stories that later became part of the Winnie-the-Pooh books, were first published in 1925. Milne also worked as an early screenwriter for the British film industry, writing four stories for Minerva Films in 1920, including *The Bump*, *Twice Two*, *Five Pound Reward*, and *Bookworms*. Some of these films survive in the British Film Institute archives. He had met actor Leslie Howard when Howard starred in Milne’s play *Mr Pim Passes By*.

Looking back on his career in 1926, Milne noted that when he told his agent he planned to write a detective story, he was told the public wanted a humorous story from a *Punch* humorist. Two years later, when he said he was writing nursery rhymes, his agent and publisher insisted he should write another detective story. After another two years, he was told that writing a detective story would be in poor taste given the demand for children’s books. He concluded that the only excuse he had found for writing anything was that he wanted to write.