[Ads-l] [Non-DoD Source] Earliest Known Example of "Kilroy Was Here" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill CIV (US)]

CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

The following issue of _Texacts_ has (21 Jul 1945, p 3 col 1):

"THEN , in a shipboard newspaper of last month called "The Rag” we find the following: “ Latest news of the world is now flashed to ship’s passengers every afternoon at 3 o’clock by KILROY , unmasked as Sgt. Ed Neibling, formerly announcer for Sheppard Field, Texas, radio shows” "

So, if "The Rag" can be identified, it may hold antedatings.

And p. 5, col 3 of the 21 July issue has:
"Ode To Kilroy
This sign will make me shout, “Hooroy!”
Here lies the body of the late Kilroy.
I’ll clap my hands when it's etched in stone:
Kilroy sleeps beneath . . . alone!
And to this I wouldn’t cry or notten;
Kilroy’s gone—and FORGOTTEN!
—Anon."




> 
> The OED's first citation for "Kilroy was here" is dated Oct. 20, 1945.  Barry Popik has pushed the phrase back to Sept. 28, 1945.  There is an
> earlier occurrence, from an Access Newspaper Archive search, in _Sheppard Field Texacts_, July 14, 1945, page 3, column 1.
> 
> Note that in the Yale Book of Quotations I cited a variant, "Kilroy Sleeps Here," from the _Kearns Air Force Post Review_, June 26, 1945.
> 
> Fred Shapiro
> 
> 
CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

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