Milton King, (Son of Mrs. F. V. King) aged seven months of 19 Malcolm Street Erskineville first appeared in an advertisement for Arnott’s in about October 1900 and appeared regularly in newspapers across the country for the duration of 1901 and into 1902. The advertisements were reprised briefly in late 1904. In all, young Milton made well over 40 appearances. Here is an early version from December 1900:

Newcastle Morning Herald and Miner’s Advocate Friday, 14 December 1900

Early advertisements featured the testimonial of Mrs. F. V. King, but these did not appear for long, or seemed to have been replaced with the testimonial of George Harrison of Montefiores Street, Wellington NSW, with the additional claim that his child had been brought up on nothing else but Arnott’s Milk Arrowroot Biscuits!

Queanbeyan Age Saturday, 2 March 1901

Around the same time, courtesy of the Temora Star came the additional indignity of the imposter baby:

Temora Star (NSW) Wednesday, 27 February 1901

Avoid imitations! The picture is actually of Rita Dulcie London (daughter of Mrs. London), aged three months and three weeks, of Marsden and Crimea Streets South Parramatta.

A check of the Sands Directories shows Thomas King – baker, residing at 19 Malcolm street from 1898 to 1906. A check of the NSW registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages shows Milton King was born to Thomas V. and Elizabeth King in the District of Newtown in 1900.

19 Malcolm Street Erskineville

This extract of a map published in 1894 shows the location of number 19 Malcolm Street has remained unchanged:

1984 – City of Sydney Section Erskineville – Sheets 5 & 7

The Arnott’s celebrates 150 years website describes the ‘Living Pictures’ advertising campaign as running from 1892 until the 1950s and involving tens of thousands of proud mums sending in testimonials with portraits and photographs of their well–fed babies. The lucky few would have portraits of their children featured in print.