Simon Stephen Milne (born January 1959) is a British marine officer and conservationist who has been Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh since 2014.

Early life and military career

Born in 1959, Milne was educated at the University of St Andrews and the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. He was commissioned into the

Royal Marines The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...

in 1976 and served in Northern Ireland and Bosnia. He was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire in 1996. He reached the rank of lieutenant colonel and was invalided in 2000. He was later made a member of Her Majesty's bodyguard of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms in July 2011.

Conservation career

Milne was director of the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens and Arboretum from 2000 to 2004 and chief executive of the Scottish Wildlife Trust from October 2004 until February 2014. Starting in 2007, he co-led the trial reintroduction of the European beaver to Scotland, with the Scottish Wildlife Trust working alongside the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. He is the founder of the World Forum on Natural Capital and has specific interest and expertise in translocations, public engagement with the natural environment, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem scale approach. Milne was appointed the 16th Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in February 2014, replacing

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

Stephen Blackmore Stephen Blackmore CBE FRSE FRSB FLS (born 30 July 1952) is a British botanist, who was educated at St. George's School, Hong Kong and the University of Reading where he completed his PhD in 1976 on the "Palynology and Systematics of the C ...

. He is a fellow of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

and was conferred an honorary professor of the University of Edinburgh, associated to the School of Biological Sciences in January 2016.

Personal life

Milne married his wife Françoise in 1993 and the couple have three children together. Originally from France, she applied for dual-nationality following the

2016 EU referendum The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country shoul ...

but her application was rejected, leading the couple to publicly criticise the uncertainty created by Brexit.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Milne, Simon Living people Alumni of the University of St Andrews British conservationists Members of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms 1959 births