Wally (anonymous)


Wally is a British English expression referring to a "silly or inept person", which later developed into an umbrella term for "vulnerable individuals".
According to Oxford Dictionaries Online, it possibly originated at a pop festival in the 1960s when, on hearing the name being announced many times over a loudspeaker, the crowd took it up as a chant.
I remember sitting on the hill at the 1970 festival overlooking the site when a guy nearby went to get some food and couldn't find his way back his friends called out his name "Wally" and slowly the crowd joined in.
The cry was picked up by others and led to random shout of "Wally" being heard at rock concerts all over Britain. It was still being called out at the 1979 Led Zeppelin Knebworth Concerts.
In 1974 a group of new age travelers were encamped near Stonehenge, to help hinder the process of eviction by the landowners they all gave their name as Wally of Wessex, "Wally being a conveniently anonymous umbrella for vulnerable individuals".