04-03 Kilroy was Here

Anyone who lived through World War II will remember the slogan “Kilroy was Here”. On every news reel showing US forces advancing in France or Italy, there would be the cartoon signature announcing that “Kilroy was Here” on fences or walls.
This had a special meaning for Ian and I when we went to Ireland. On the inside door of our cabin of the Queen Elizabeth luxury liner was the cartoon that announced “Kilroy was Here”.
Our cabin steward explained that our ship carried soldiers back and forth between New York and Southampton during the war and one of the six soldiers using our cabin painted the cartoon on the door, and the management of the liner decided to leave it there when the ship was refurbished from a troop ship back to a luxury liner.
The history apparently is based on a U.S. ship inspector named Kilroy, that after inspecting the construction of a new ship, wrote on the side “Kilroy was Here”. The expression began to represent super GIs everywhere. And anywhere US troops were active you could count on someone painting the cartoon to witness their presence.
I love the story told of Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt at the Potsdam conference using their own special toilets, and Stalin asking his aide who Kilroy was.
When the family came back from Ireland in 1947, we were still talking about Kilroy and the amazing painting on our cabin door. One day when Ian and I were playing in the back yard and doing what boys will do, that is “weeing” against the back of the garage instead of going into the house, Ian got a crayon and printed “Kilroy was Here” on the garage wall.
That special sense of humour that we all loved about Ian was evident at nine years of age.