Described as "a kind of Notting Hill version of the Yippies in America: a joke-prankster group", he adopted the name "Wally Hope" for himself, under which he would acquire the status of countercultural folk hero.
[1] The festival might have had little impact if it had stopped soon after midsummer, Wally had persuaded some thirty people to remain, on National Trust land in the field adjacent to Stonehenge itself.
They styled themselves "The Wallies of Wessex" and lived a makeshift, communal lifestyle in tents, a rickety polythene-covered geodesic dome and a small fluorescent tipi.
In May 1975, whilst stopping at the Amesbury squat on a trip from London to Cornwall, an unexpected police raid resulted in Wally's arrest for possession of a small amount of LSD.
[4] He was believed to belong to a wealthy family, from which he would inherit a considerable sum when he attained the age of 30 years; his guardian was the BBC radio and television announcer John Snagge, according to a newspaper report of Wally's death.