Sir William Heygate Edmund Colborne Butlin (29 September 189912 June 1980) was an entrepreneur known for British holiday camps.American Heritage Dictionary 2004, p. 135.Scott 2001, p. 5. Although holiday camps such as Warner's existed in one form or another before Butlin opened his first in 1936, it was Butlin who turned holiday camps into a multimillion-pound industry and an important aspect of British culture.
Born in Cape Town, South Africa, to William and Bertha Butlin, Butlin had a turbulent childhood. His parents separated before he was seven, and he moved to England with his mother. He 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. When he was twelve his mother emigrated to Canada, leaving him in the care of his aunt for two years. Once settled in Toronto, his mother invited him to join her there.
In Canada, Butlin struggled to fit in at school and soon left for a job in a Toronto department store Eaton's. In World War I he enlisted as a bugler in the Canadian Army. After the war, Butlin returned to England, bringing only £5 with him. He is seen on the 1921 census as lodging with John and Louisa Maggs in Avonmouth, Bristol and is described as Amusement Caterer travelling on own account. Investing £4 of that money to hire a stall travelling with his uncle's fair, Butlin discovered that giving his customers a better chance to win brought more custom in, and he quickly became successful. One stall became several, including prominent locations such as Olympia in London, and Butlin soon purchased other fairground equipment and started his own travelling fair. He proved successful in this endeavour as well, and by 1927 he opened a static fairground in Skegness.
Over the next 10 years Butlin expanded his fairground empire, while harbouring an idea to increase the number of patrons in his Skegness site by providing accommodation. Butlin's first holiday camp opened at Skegness in 1936, followed by Clacton, two years later. Plans to open a third in Filey were cut short by the outbreak of World War II. 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. In the post-war boom, Butlin opened four more camps at Mosney, Bognor Regis, Minehead and Barry Island as well as buying hotels in Blackpool, Saltdean, and Cliftonville.
Butlin's grave is in the grounds of Blair Adam house, Jersey.
Early life
William Heygate Edmund Colborne Butlin was born on 29 September 1899 in the Cape Colony (part of the modern-day Republic of South Africa). His father, William Colborne Butlin, was the son of a clergyman; his mother, Bertha Cassandra Hill, was a member of a family of travelling showmen. They met at a young age when Bertha's parents were working a country fair that William attended. Their marriage was considered not socially acceptable in Leonard Stanley, Gloucestershire, where they lived, and they emigrated to South Africa. William founded a bicycle shop to support the family, and they had two children, Butlin and his brother Harry John (known as Binkie) Butlin. When the marriage failed, Butlin's mother returned to England with her children and rejoined her own family in Coaley, near Bristol.Dacre 1982, p. 36. Within a short time, Harry contracted polio and died.General Register Office of England and Wales, March quarter 1913, Dursley, vol 6a, page 194
In his autobiography, Butlin recorded that his mother remarried and emigrated to Canada circa 1910.Dacre 1982, p. 39. For two years, Butlin, and his cousin Jimmy Hill boarded with a widow in Bristol.Dacre 1982, p. 39. (This may not be correct as the 1911 Census of England shows that he and his mother were residing with her sister-in-law in Organs Yard, Regents Road, Bedminster, Somerset, England.)1911 Census of England, the 1921 Census shows him residing as a lodger at the residence of John and Loiusa Maggs in Avonmouth, Bristol UK. piece 14912 In December 1913, his mother returned to England and married Charles Robotham in Swindon.General Register Office of England and Wales, December quarter 1913, Swindon, vol 5a, page 74
Butlin's mother and stepfather then asked him to join them in Toronto. He accepted their offer, but was unhappy at school in Canada. He was mocked because of his English accent, and he left school at age 14. Eventually, he worked as a messenger at Eaton's, Toronto's largest department store. One aspect of working for the company was that he was able to visit their summer camp, which gave him his first taste of a real holiday. Later, he transferred to Eaton's advertising department where he drew black and white adverts, whilst studying at night school.Dacre 1982, p. 43.
In 1915, during World War I, Butlin volunteered for service in the Canadian Army. Knowing that the army already had a full quota of despatch riders, Butlin intended to volunteer for service in that category in the knowledge that although his application would be declined he would still receive an "I volunteered" badge for his actions without having to serve. While applying, Butlin forgot to tell the recruiter of this intention, and was consequently allocated to the Canadian Expeditionary Force which was involved in the fighting along the Western Front.Dacre 1982, pp. 43–45. He was subsequently posted to the 170th (Mississauga Horse) Battalion on 29 December 1915. His attestation papers give his date of birth as 1898 (rather than the actual 1899), allowing him to enlist at age 15. The papers give his occupation as a "Suit Case Maker". The papers also show, as Butlin himself later stated, that he had been selected to serve as a bugler.
Before his deployment to Europe, Butlin transferred to the 216th (Bantams) Battalion, and he was sent to England.Allinson 1981, p. 180. Once in England, he was stationed at Sandgate near Folkestone before being deployed to France. 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, Butlin served as a stretcher bearer.Scott 2001, p. 6.
After the war, Butlin returned to England aboard a cattle ship, arriving in England with only £5 (£250.31 as of 2026) capital. He travelled to Bridgwater, Somerset where his uncle, Marshall Hill, was a showman. He purchased a hoopla stall from Hill, and ran it successfully. In later interviews, 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, Butlin's actions allowed patrons to have a much higher success rate (approximately 3 in 5 for each ring)Dacre 1982, p. 72. and brought him more custom than fellow stall holders. By contrast, an average game would have odds of approximately 1 in 9 for each ring or 1 in 3 for a 3-ring game.
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. He moved to London and set up a successful stall outside the Christmas circus ran by Bertram Mills at Olympia. By the end of the season, Butlin was so successful that he brought his widowed mother to the UK from Canada.
Start of Butlin's empire Funfair and amusement parks Over the next few years Butlin toured the country with the Hills Travelling Fair, leaving his mother to run the Olympia site. Soon he had his own travelling fair visiting country fairs such as Barnstaple. Butlin opened some permanently-sited stalls in 1925, in Barry Island, Wales.Scott 2001, p. 6. In 1927 he leased land from the Earl of Scarbrough in the seaside town of Skegness. Here he established an amusement park with hoopla stalls, a tower slide, a haunted house, and a scenic railway. In 1928, Butlin secured an exclusive licence to sell dodgem cars in Europe. The first dodgems in Britain were available in his park at Skegness. Other showmen bought dodgems from Butlin. His activities in Skegness continued to expand, and by 1930 included a zoo featuring lions, zebras and an imitation African village.Scott 2001, p. 24.
Butlin opened a similar fairground in 1932, in Bognor Regis, on the corner of the Esplanade, named the Recreation Shelter. In 1933 he opened a zoo nearby, which featured polar bears, kangaroos and monkeys. Around the same time he opened an amusement park in Bognor's neighbouring village of Littlehampton, known as Butlin's Park.
In the 1930s Butlin had amusement parks in Mablethorpe (opened 1928), Hayling Island (1931), Felixstowe (1931), Southsea (1931) and on the Isle of Man. He 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. By 1935 most of his existing parks had zoos attached to them, providing another source of revenue.
Butlin's funfair and amusement park business expanded in the post-war period. In 1938 he gained the sole contract to supply amusements to the Empire Exhibition in Glasgow and after the war, he continued to open amusement parks such as the one at Sheerness.Scott 2001, p. 20.Scott 2001, p. 29.
First holiday camps
Butlin had nurtured the idea of a holiday camp. He had seen the way landladies in seaside resorts would, sometimes literally, push families out of the lodgings between meals, regardless of the weather. 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.
He opened his first Butlin's camp at Ingoldmells, near Skegness, on 11 April 1936 (which coincided with Easter eve). It was officially opened by Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia. An advertisement costing £500 (£31,132.13 in 2026) was placed in the Daily Express, announced the opening of the camp, inviting the public to book for a week's holiday. The advertisement offered holidays with three meals a day and free entertainment with a week's full board cost anything from 35 shillings to £3 (£112.08 to £186.79 in 2026), according to the time of year. When the camp opened, Butlin realised that his guests were not engaging with activities in the way he had planned. Most kept to themselves, and others looked bored. He asked Norman Bradford (who was engaged as an engineer constructing the camp) to take on the duty of entertaining the guests, which he did with a series of icebreakers and jokes. By the end of the night the camp was buzzing and the Butlin's atmosphere was born. After that, entertainment was the heart of Butlins, and Bradford became the first of Butlin's Redcoats. That night 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.