KILROY WAS HERE - wot no sugar
While writing my current book, BLOOD ON THE CARDS, I researched wartime graffiti. I wanted to describe the interior of a WW2 pillbox where the body of a fortune teller is found. I decided to use this one. Not sure if it actually existed but it amused me to think it might have.
Also,
YANKS GO HOME
This would have been quite common at the time.
But one that was seen all over during that period was KILROY. The figure was initially known in the United Kingdom as MR CHAD and would appear with the slogan "Wot, no sugar" or a similar phrase bemoaning shortages and rationing.He often appeared with a single curling hair that resembled a question mark and with crosses in his eyes.The phrase "Wot, no —?" pre-dates "Chad" and was widely used separately from the doodle. Chad was used by the RAF and civilians; he was known in the Army as Private Snoops, and in the Navy he was called The Watcher.
Even older was FOO who predates Kilroy by about 25 years.
I still remember seeing the odd bit of Chad graffiti around when I was in my early teens in the late 1970s...also "Jump with happiness, sing with joy, I was here before Kilroy"! (At the old White Rock swimming baths). Perhaps it was a bit of a revival in the same way as some other popular culture revivals occur...
ReplyDeleteI must say graffiti was much more inventive in those days. As colourful modern graffiti is it can be a bit dull.
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