65 Facts About Billy Butlin

Sir William Heygate Edmund Colborne Butlin was an entrepreneur whose name is synonymous with the British holiday camp.

Billy Butlin's parents separated before he was seven, and he moved to England with his mother.

Billy Butlin spent the next five years following his grandmother's family fair around the country where his mother sold gingerbread, exposing the young Butlin to the skills of commerce and entertainment.

In Canada, Billy Butlin struggled to fit in at school and soon left for a job in a Toronto department store Eaton's.

One stall became several, including prominent locations such as Olympia in London, and Billy Butlin soon purchased other fairground equipment and started his own travelling fair.

Billy Butlin proved successful in this endeavour as well, and by 1927 he opened a static fairground in Skegness.

Billy Butlin used the war to his advantage, persuading the MoD to complete the Filey Holiday Camp and construct two more camps in Ayr and Pwllheli as training camps which he reclaimed when the war was over.

Billy Butlin's grave is in the grounds of Blair Adam house, Jersey.

William Heygate Edmund Colborne Billy Butlin was born on 29 September 1899 in the Cape Colony.

Billy Butlin's father, William Colborne Butlin, was the son of a clergyman; his mother, Bertha Cassandra Hill, was a member of a family of travelling showmen.

Billy Butlin accepted their offer, but was unhappy at school in Canada.

Billy Butlin was mocked because of his English accent, and he left school at age 14.

In 1915, during World War I, Billy Butlin volunteered for service in the Canadian Army.

Billy Butlin was posted to the 170th Battalion on 29 December 1915.

In France, the 216th became part of the 3rd Canadian Division which took part in the second battle of Vimy Ridge, as well the battles at Ypres and Arras, and the second battle of Cambrai; while in France, Billy Butlin served as a stretcher bearer.

Billy Butlin travelled to Bridgwater, Somerset where his uncle, Marshall Hill, was a showman.

Billy Butlin purchased a hoopla stall from Hill, and ran it successfully.

In later interviews, Billy Butlin claimed that he accidentally sawed the corners off his hoopla blocks, but some observers such as The Sunday Herald report that he did it intentionally, displaying "logic and business sense".

In either case, Billy Butlin's actions allowed patrons to have a much higher success rate and brought him more custom than fellow stall holders.

Billy Butlin's stall gave him less profit per customer than his competitors, but the increase in business gave him a bigger overall profit than theirs.

Billy Butlin moved to London and set up a successful stall in Olympia outside the Christmas Circus run by Bertram Mills.

Billy Butlin opened some permanently-sited stalls in 1925, in Barry Island, Wales.

In 1928, Billy Butlin secured an exclusive licence to sell dodgem cars in Europe.

Billy Butlin opened a similar fairground in 1932, in Bognor Regis, on the corner of the Esplanade, named the Recreation Shelter.

Billy Butlin continued to operate his winter fair at Olympia and soon added the winter fairs at Waverley Hall in Edinburgh and at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow.

Billy Butlin had seen the way landladies in seaside resorts would, sometimes literally, push families out of the lodgings between meals, regardless of the weather.

Billy Butlin toyed with the idea of providing holiday accommodation that encouraged holiday-makers to stay on the site and provided entertainment for them between meals.

Billy Butlin opened his first Butlin's camp at Ingoldmells, near Skegness, on 11 April 1936.

Billy Butlin asked Norman Bradford to take on the duty of entertaining the guests, which he did with a series of ice breakers and jokes.

That night Billy Butlin decided that for his camp to be successful he would need many more on the same job as Bradford, and the role of Redcoat was conceived.

Billy Butlin proposed a new holiday camp at Clacton-on-Sea in Essex in 1936.

Billy Butlin took the decision to form the company as a means to raise finance for his new camps.

The ministry needed further camps, and contracted Billy Butlin to build them.

Billy Butlin agreed, on the condition that he could purchase the sites after the war for use as holiday camps.

Billy Butlin had purchased his first hotel in 1939, the Thatched Barn in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire.

Billy Butlin was recruited by the Ministry of Supply and asked to look at the causes of low morale amongst the workers in Britain's munitions factories.

Billy Butlin's first stop was at the Royal Ordnance Factory, Chorley, where he found that the camouflaged huts and barbed wire fences used to house workers gave them the feeling of being interned.

Late in the war, during the Allied advance through western Europe following the Normandy landings, Billy Butlin was approached by General Bernard Montgomery, who asked him to help set up leave centres for the 21st Army Group.

In 1944, Billy Butlin was awarded the MBE for his wartime service to the Ministry of Supply.

Billy Butlin opened camps at Mosney, in the soon to be Republic of Ireland, in 1948 and on Grand Bahama, in 1949.

Billy Butlin purchased the Princess Hotel in Bermuda and the Fort Montagu beach hotel in Nassau.

Billy Butlin admitted defeat and focused his efforts back in Europe.

On 2 July 1960 Billy Butlin planned to open his holiday camp at Bognor, but because of flooding it was not ready.

Billy Butlin offered his patrons the chance to be re-sited at Clacton or to stay and help complete the camp's construction.

Billy Butlin finally decided to build the last and smallest of the camps there in 1965.

Billy Butlin took out a 99-year lease on the headland at Nell's Point, Barry Island, in 1966.

Billy Butlin retired in 1969 and the Barry Island camp was the last opening under his management.

Billy Butlin sold Dane Court in 1951, and moved to a property in Grosvenor Square.

Billy Butlin remained in this property through the 1950s and 1960s.

Billy Butlin retired in 1969, handing over company operations to his son Bobby.

Billy Butlin elected to move from London, becoming a permanent resident in Blair Adam House, Saint John, on the island of Jersey, in the Channel Islands.

Billy Butlin remained a resident of Jersey until his death on 12 June 1980, aged 80.

Billy Butlin is buried in the parish of St John and his grave is shaped to represent a double bed.

Billy Butlin actively engaged in charity work through the Grand Order of Water Rats and through the Variety Club of Great Britain.

Billy Butlin was Chief Barker of the Variety Club in 1959,1966 and 1975.

In being knighted, Billy Butlin was following in the footsteps of his great uncle Sir Henry Trentham Billy Butlin, an eminent surgeon.

In 1960, Billy Butlin was awarded the Carl Alan award for his services to dance.

Billy Butlin remained close to his mother, both in following her to Canada and in arranging for her to come home after the death of his stepfather.

Billy Butlin died in 1934 and never saw his first holiday camp.

Billy Butlin's father remained in Cape Town for the rest of his life, dying in 1954.

Billy Butlin was surprised by Eamonn Andrews for This Is Your Life on his wedding day in 1959.

The second marriage lasted only a few months, as Billy Butlin had already fallen in love with Sheila Edwina Devine.

In 1975, with divorce laws having changed, Billy Butlin was able to divorce Norah and marry Sheila with whom he remained until his death.

Billy Butlin had two sons and four daughters from his three marriages.

Billy Butlin is listed as a member of the eclectic "orchestra" in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's recording, "The Intro and the Outro", where he is credited with playing the spoons.