John Milne was born in Liverpool in 1850, but grew up in Rochdale living at 147 Drake Street and at Tunshill, Milnrow. Milne led a remarkable life and by all accounts was a man abounding with energy and enthusiasm. He was an avid golfer and enjoyed music, literature and photography, but his passion was earthquakes.

Educated at King's College and the Royal School of Mines, he worked as a mining engineer in Newfoundland and Labrador and in 1874 served as a geologist on a mining expedition to N.W. Arabia. At the age of 25 he took up the position as professor of Geology and Mining at the Imperial College of Engineering in Tokyo. He founded the Seismological Society of Japan and over the years compiled an extensive catalog of Japanese earthquakes. In collaboration with Alfred Ewing and Thomas Gray, he invented a revolutionary new seismograph that was used for many years and was known as the Milne-Shaw seismograph.