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A straightfoward search on the phrase "Kilroy was here" (with the quotation marks) led us to a site of the same name. The site offered no less than nine possible explanations for the origin of the graffiti popularized during World War II. The most widely accepted theory, and one that is repeated on numerous web pages, holds that the Kilroy refers to James J. Kilroy, a shipyard inspector from Massachusetts. After completing his inspection of a ship or plane, he would scrawl "Kilroy was here" on its side to mark his work. The phrase was adopted
by American GIs and started popping up everywhere, from the sewers of Paris to the Statue of Liberty's torch to the private restroom used by Truman, Stalin, and Churchill during the Potsdam conference. Interestingly, the bulbous-nosed cartoon character peeking over a wall was not originally associated with Kilroy. It's believed that he started as a British character called Mr. Chad. Sometime during the war, the American phrase and the British character melded, and a fad was born.
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