The expression milk monitor designates a schoolchild responsible for distributing servings of milk to other children.
On Wednesday 15th May 2024, during Prime Minister’s questions, Keir Starmer (born 1962), Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020, used this expression to describe Rishi Sunak (born 1980), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party since 2022; Keir Starmer said the following—“he” refers to Rishi Sunak:
“He’s literally letting criminals out early […]. Doesn’t he think that rather than confiscating lanyards * like some jumped-up milk monitor he should stop issuing ‘get out of jail free cards’ to prisoners considered a risk to children?”
* This is a reference to a declaration made by Esther McVey (born 1967), the so-called “minister for common sense” in Rishi Sunak’s government: she announced that civil servants would be banned from wearing rainbow lanyards, saying that she was determined to take on the “Left-wing, politically-correct woke warriors” in the public sector.
The expression milk monitor seems to have originated in American English: these are the first two occurrences that I have found:
1-: From In Local Schools, published in The Daily Argus (Mount Vernon, New York, USA) of Tuesday 23rd May 1922 [No. 9,905, page 9, column 5]:
The election of officers in grade 4-2, Washington school, which took place recently, is as follows: President, Helen Devine; vice-president, James Thomas; […] housekeepers, Anna Tuccillo, Margaret Licoratulo, Pauline Partch; milk monitor, Anna Tuccillo.
2-: From News of our Neighbors, published in The Bismarck Tribune (Bismarck, North Dakota, USA) of Monday 21st March 1927 [page 2, column 1]:
Leith
[…]
Primary Grade
We have enjoyed a victrola record Beauford Moen brought us.
Our milk monitors are Warren Teker and Leroy Herron. Paper monitors are Leona Williams and Chester Schmechel.
The earliest British and Irish uses of the expression milk monitor that I have found are as follows, in chronological order:
1-: From the Belfast Telegraph (Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland) of Tuesday 5th March 1935 [page 10, column 5]:
Lessons were dropped for ten minutes in Glasgow schools on Monday and 142,000 children drank milk instead when the city’s milk scheme came into operation.
[…]
On Monday in Glasgow 6,000 gallons of milk were consumed. Four million gallons will be drunk annually by the 500,000 schoolchildren of Scotland.
Each child pays a ½d per day for the milk, necessitous children receiving their supply free. The ½d represents half the cost, the remainder being paid by the State, Glasgow’s contribution this year being £23,000, which represents half the cost of the issue to necessitous children.
The milk is distributed by “milk monitors,” drawn from among the boys of each class. In the case of the infant classes boys from the higher classes lend a hand.
The milk consumed, the bottles are collected, each with their straws inside them—a precaution to keep the classrooms clean.
Should a child on the paying register be absent for any cause a corresponding credit is given in succeeding “bills.”
Considerable clerical work is involved. Each teacher has to keep a “milk register” and a “receipt slip book,” in which returns are made to the headmaster, who is able to regulate the ordering of supplies each Friday.
The headmaster has also had to open a new banking account to receive the hundreds of “tuppence-ha’pennies” which are remitted to the Corporation each month together with a monthly milk return.
2-: From Chum Club Corner, by ‘Uncle Jack’, published in the Daily Record and Mail (Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland) of Tuesday 5th March 1935 [No. 27,492, page 16, column 3]:
Chummy Replies to Letters Received:
Chum Archie Beaty (394320), Knightswood.—I enjoyed very much your letter written in that “breezy” style. You will now have some work to do when you are made a “milk monitor.” The next thing I will be hearing is that you are getting bed and breakfast at school. Cheerio!
3-: From an account of the annual prize distribution of the Thetford Boys’ Council School, in Norfolk, held on Tuesday 22nd December 1936, published in The Bury Free Press and The Bury & Norwich Post (Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England) of Saturday 26th December 1936 [No. 8,745, page 11, column 4]:
The list of prize-winners was as follows:—
[…]
Special Prizes.—[…] gardening, 1 John Smith, 2 Arthur Lockwood; milk monitor, Harold Deacon; bell monitor, Charles Mower.
4-: From a transcript of a declaration made by Mr. A. A. Behenna, a member of Truro City Council, concerning milk supplied to schools in the city—transcript published in the West Briton & Cornwall Advertiser (Truro, Cornwall, England) of Monday 1st November 1937 [page 2, column 3]:
He complained that the method adopted was not one that was conducive to an assurance that the milk was of the standard of the highest quality, and although it was considered part of the duties of the teachers to issue the milk when received, in practice this was not so. When the milk was received, milk monitors issued it to the various classes, and each child took his or her bottle. The teachers only knew when complaints were made that it was in a sour state.
5-: From a review of the annual Christmas parties at Stockport Secondary School, published in the Stockport Express (Stockport, Cheshire, England) of Thursday 30th December 1937 [No. 2,516, page 7, column 2]:
The School Orchestra played several jazz numbers, which were very popular, and then followed “Alice in Blunderland,” which would certainly have greatly amused Lewis Carroll. Everything was mad—raving mad; the only sane person being poor Alice. Many topical touches, some broad and some subtle, were introduced, and the poor milk monitors got it hot and strong. We remember that not so long ago the B.B.C. had to sing slow about a milk discussion. What is there about this subtle beverage that causes men and boys to lose their reason?
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