Reverend Peter Milne was born at Stains, Aberdeen on the 17 May 1834. He trained and was ordained as a missionary to the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) with the Free Church of Scotland, under the Presbyterian Synod of Otago and Southland. He married Miss Mary Jane Veitch in December 1868 and they quickly departed for the New Hebrides via Dunedin, settling on Nguna Island in 1870. The Milnes faced a number of difficulties in the early years at Nguna, including the unscrupulous activities of European traders and planters. The first baptism took place in 1880, and after subsequent rapid evangelisation, the island was nominally Christian by 1896. Mary Milne left the island for Dunedin in 1906, to 'gather together her family', but died of a malarial illness in 1908. The Reverend Milne continued his missionary work on Nguna until dying at age 90, in 1924. Mary and Peter had at least three children, including the Reverend William Milne, also a missionary on Nguna.