Robert Milligan (10 October 1786 – 1 July 1862) was a Liberal Party politician and the first mayor of Bradford.
[4] By 1810 he had opened a drapers shop in Westgate, Bradford[1] eventually becoming a buyer for Leo Schuster & Co. of Manchester and through that job met Henry Forbes (1790–1870).
By 1847, Robert Milligan's esteem had risen enough for him to become the town's first mayor and chairman of the new borough magistrates.
[4] In 1833 he was one of the Bradford Anti-Slavery Society’s delegates to the Exeter Hall assembly which called for immediate and outright emancipation of slaves in the British colonies, and in 1835 he presided at a meeting to celebrate Benjamin Godwin’s abolitionist work.
The flattering inscription reads: "In memory of Robert Milligan of Acacia Road, Rawdon.