Sculptor, wood carver, stone carver
Born in York. He was the son of Lionel Milburn (born c.1808 in York), a tailor and a clothes dealer. He was apprenticed as a woodcarver to a pianoforte manufacturer named Messrs Waddington, before going on to work in the studio of the sculptor, Samuel Ruddock (c.1828-1903). He may also have studied in York Minster Yard and worked for two years in Corfe Castle, Dorset.
By 1881 George had established his own business in York and was employing three men and four boys and later set up in a workshop at Bootham Bar. One of his sons, Wilfred Joseph Milburn (1882-1949) worked with his father from about 1901 and the firm became known as Milburn and Son.
George Walker Milburn executed architectural, ecclesiastical and funerary works as well as some statues. The latter include statues of William Etty, George Leeman, George Hudson, Dean Purey Cust and Queen Victoria all sited in York.
Milburn senior was still working in 1932, that year he executed The Stations of the Cross for the English Martyrs Church, York to a design by the architect Mangtry Langton. in 1932.