after retiring from the royal naval college, milne-thomson took up various posts as visiting professor at various institutions around the world, including the brown university at rhode island, the us army mathematics research center at the university of wisconsin (1958–1960), the university of arizona (1961–1970), university of rome (1968), the university of queensland (1969), the university of calgary (1970), and finally the university of otago (1971). at the end of a long career milne-thomson quit academia in 1971 and went to live in sevenoaks, kent where he died at the age of 83. his great-granddaughter is now a teacher at the abbey school, reading.