F. Kenneth Milne

Frank Kenneth Milne (18 July 1885 – 3 October 1980), usually referred to as F. Kenneth Milne, was an Australian architect based in Adelaide, South Australia. He was regarded as one of the leading architects in the state in 1920, and continued to design buildings even in retirement. He went into partnership with a series of other architects over the course of his career, including John Richard Schomburgk Evans, Charles Alexander Russell, and Rolfe Vernon Boehm. He is also known for his work as a cinema architect, having been the appointed architect for Ozone Theatres in the 1930s.

He and his wife established the Kenneth and Hazel Milne Travelling Scholarship at the University of Adelaide in 1958. Several of his designs survive today, with many heritage-listed, including Woodards House in Waymouth Street, Adelaide, the remodelled Regal Theatre in Kensington Park, and his own home in Stanley Street, North Adelaide.

Early life and education Frank Kenneth Milne was born on 18 July 1885 in the eastern Adelaide suburb of Tusmore, the seventh of eight children of land agent John Milne and his wife Lucy Edith Macgeorge. His grandfather was Sir William Milne.

He attended both private school and state schools at Glenelg and North Adelaide. His art teacher at Mrs Kingston's school in Glenelg, Mary Overbury, taught him drawing. from 1903 to 1906, being taught there by chief draftsman Stuart Clark. becoming Milne, Evans, and Russell. The practice was dissolved in early 1930. The work was completed in 1929, with the alterations costing £5,000. In 1928-9 Milne (then in practice as Milne & Evans) designed and supervised construction of an office building at 47-49 Waymouth Street, Adelaide, known as the Norwich Union Building (later Woodards House), for Norwich Union Fire Insurance Society, which Milne regarded as one of his finest works. In the same year, the firm designed a large extension to the Kensington Gardens Bowling & Tennis Club.

In 1933-4 Milne travelled to Europe on a study tour, and was impressed by Georgian architecture, especially that of John and James Adam.

In 1936, he designed a home for his own family, at 229 Stanley Street, North Adelaide, called "Sunnyside". The home was state heritage-listed on the South Australian Heritage Register on 11 September 1986.

In 1941, he was engaged to do an extensive remodelling of the Ozone Marryatville (now the Regal Theatre, Kensington Park).

Later associates in his practice, from the late 1940s onwards, included L. C. Dawkins and Rolfe Vernon Boehm (1946); Russell Stuart Ellis (1947); F. P. Bulbeck (by 1957); J. R. N. Twopeny (1960); and James Hodge (by 1964). F. Kenneth Milne (1909–1920) F. Kenneth Milne & Evans (1920–1925) F. Kenneth Milne, Evans & Russell (1925–1930) F. Kenneth Milne (1931–1946) F. Kenneth Milne, Dawkins & Boehm (1946–1947) F. Kenneth Milne, Dawkins, Boehm & Ellis (1947–1955) F. Kenneth Milne, Boehm, Ellis & Bulbeck (1956–1959) F. Kenneth Milne, Boehm, Bulbeck & Partners (1960–1961) F. Kenneth Milne, Boehm, Twopeny & Moss (1961–1963) Milne Boehm Twopeny & Hodge (1963–1973)

Other activities Milne was president of the South Australian Institute of Architects (SAIA) from 1937 to 1939. He promoted the architectural profession in public lectures, and was a co-founder of the school of architecture at the University of Adelaide.

Awards 1944: Inaugural SAIA Merit Award for Domestic Architecture, for Sunnyside

Selected works Norwich Union Building In 1928-9 Milne (then in practice as F. Kenneth Milne, Evans & Russell) designed and supervised construction of an office building at 47-49 Waymouth Street, Adelaide, for Norwich Union Fire Insurance Society, which included ground floor offices for the Commercial Bank of Australia. The building was officially opened on 5 June 1929, after a dinner the previous night attended by many local dignitaries. Later renamed Woodards House, the building was state heritage-listed on the South Australian Heritage Register on 23 August 2013, and described as "an outstanding example of a building constructed in the Inter-War Commercial Palazzo style". An additional floor was added in 1953.

Other buildings Hampshire Hotel, Grote Street (1910) tailors, with rooms for doctors & dentists on upper floors; named after Joseph Lister, medical doctor who developed antiseptic surgery; building purchased by Commonwealth Oil Refineries in 1946; described as "Modern Gothic" and including a; renamed Tobin House 2002, later used as UniSA student accommodation Victor Theatre, Victor Harbor, rebuild (1934) Ozone Marryatville remodelling (1941) H. C. Sleigh Ltd offices (1955) Eringa, Unley Park, home of Sir Sidney Kidman Woolstores at Port Adelaide for Goldsborough Mort & Co. Several banks for the English, Scottish & Australian Bank Australian Mutual Provident Society offices at Clare

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