During W.W.I I, one Gi, started writing, "killjoy was here".?

Question

Later, a lot of GI were doing it. What was the first GI name?

Answer 1

One theory identifies James J. Kilroy, an American shipyard inspector, as the man behind the signature. During World War II he worked at the Bethlehem Steel Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts, where he claimed to have used the phrase to mark rivets he had checked.

The builders, whose rivets J. J. Kilroy was counting, were paid depending on the number of rivets they put in. They found that they could erase the chalk marks J. J. Kilroy made and get paid double. J.J. Kilroy decided to use a yellow crayon, which was harder to erase; the cheating stopped.

At the time, ships were being sent out before they had been painted, so when sealed areas were opened for maintenance, soldiers found an unexplained name scrawled. Thousands of servicemen may have potentially seen his slogan on the outgoing ships and Kilroy's omnipresence and inscrutability sparked the legend.

Afterwards, servicemen could have begun placing the slogan on different places and especially in new captured areas or landings. At some later point, the graffiti (Chad) and slogan (Kilroy was here) must have merged.(Michael Quinion. 3 April 1999.)

Answer 2

James J. Kilroy

Answer 3

The name he wrote was Kilroy. Killjoy or Buzzkill is what I call my wife.

Answer 4

James J. Kilroy.

The first web site shows this as the originators name, in Legend 1 of 9. Yes, nine legends on how this started.

The second, says "It's origins are indistinct!" According to this web site, and it was spelled here with one "l".

Answer 5

the correct phrase is "KILROY WAS HERE"...

attributed to james j. kilroy....a naval shipyard inspector during wwii...

Answer 6

Actually, it was Kilroy.

Answer 7

I thought it was `Kilroy'

Answer 8

I thought that was where the term o.k. came from? but that doesnt seem right.. i must be off.

Answer 9

It's "Kilroy was here".

Answer 10

"Kilroy"