Robert Milligan

Robert Milligan was a Scottish merchant who was largely credited for the construction of the West India Docks in London.

Milligan was a wealthy West India merchant and ship-owner whose family owned large sugar plantations on Jamaica. He grown up in Jamaica and in 1779 he established himself in London.

Incensed at losses due to theft and delay at London's riverside wharves, Milligan was a leader of a group of powerful businessmen who planned and built West India Docks, which had a monopoly on the import into London of West Indian produce such as sugar, rum and coffee for a period of 21 years. Milligan served as both Deputy Chairman and Chairman of the West India Dock Company.

The Docks officially opened in 1802. When Milligan died seven years later the company commissioned a statue of him which now stands in front of the Museum of London Docklands.