He worked at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy during the war checking the work of riveters paid by how many rivets they installed. James Kilroy had served on the Boston City Council and represented the Roxbury district in the Massachusetts Legislature during the 1930s. Kilroy (1902–1962), an American shipyard inspector, as the man behind the signature. The Oxford English Dictionary says simply that Kilroy was 'the name of a mythical person'.

It has been claimed that Foo came from the acronym for Forward Observation Officer. 'Foo' was thought of as a gremlin by the Royal Australian Air Force. If this is the case, then 'Foo was here' predates the American version of World War II, 'Kilroy was here', by about 25 years. Anthony McAuliffe's soldiers: KILROY WAS STUCK HERE.' Foo was here ĭigger History, the Unofficial history of the Australian & New Zealand Armed Services, says of Foo that 'He was chalked on the side of railway carriages, appeared in probably every camp that the 1st AIF World War I served in and generally made his presence felt'. War photographer Robert Capa noted a use of the phrase at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944: 'On the black, charred walls of an abandoned barn, scrawled in white chalk, was the legend of Gen. At the time of the Potsdam Conference in 1945, it was rumored that Stalin found 'Kilroy was here' written in the VIP bathroom, prompting him to ask his aides who Kilroy was. This led Adolf Hitler to believe that Kilroy could be the name or codename of a high-level Allied spy. Earlier examples of the phrase dating from 1937 are unverified.Īccording to one story, German intelligence found the phrase on captured American equipment. Many sources claim origin as early as 1939. At some point, the graffiti (Chad) and slogan (Kilroy was here) must have merged.

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable notes that it was particularly associated with the Air Transport Command, at least when observed in the United Kingdom. An ad in Life magazine noted that WWII-era servicemen were fond of claiming that 'whatever beach-head they stormed, they always found notices chalked up ahead of them, that 'Kilroy was here ''. The phrase may have originated through United States servicemen who would draw the picture and the text 'Kilroy was here' on the walls and other places where they were stationed, encamped, or visited. Origin and use of the phrase A depiction of Kilroy on a piece of the Berlin Wall in the Newseum in Washington, D.C. According to Dave Wilton, 'Some time during the war, Chad and Kilroy met, and in the spirit of Allied unity merged, with the British drawing appearing over the American phrase.' Other names for the character include Smoe, Clem, Flywheel, Private Snoops, Overby, Eugene the Jeep, Scabooch, and Sapo.Īccording to Charles Panati, 'The outrageousness of the graffiti was not so much what it said, but where it turned up.' It is not known if there was an actual person named Kilroy who inspired the graffiti, although there have been claims over the years. The character of Chad may have been derived from a British cartoonist in 1938, possibly pre-dating 'Kilroy was here'. 'Mr Chad' or just 'Chad' was the version that became popular in the United Kingdom.

Its origin is debated, but the phrase and the distinctive accompanying doodle became associated with GIs in the 1940s: a bald-headed man (sometimes depicted as having a few hairs) with a prominent nose peeking over a wall with his fingers clutching the wall. Kilroy was here is a meme that became popular during World War II, typically seen in graffiti. The opening scene 'Kilroy was here' graffiti at Bikini Atoll, atomic bomb test film in 1946 For other uses, see Kilroy was here (disambiguation).Įngraving of Kilroy on the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Graffiti alphabet letters wall stickers