Sir William Heygate Edmund Colborne Butlin (29 September 1899 – 12 June 1980) was an entrepreneur known for British holiday camps. 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.
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. Within a short time, Harry contracted polio and died.
In his autobiography, Butlin recorded that his mother remarried and emigrated to Canada circa 1910. For two years, Butlin, and his cousin Jimmy Hill boarded with a widow in Bristol. (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.) In December 1913, his mother returned to England and married Charles Robotham in Swindon.
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.
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. 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. 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.
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) 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.
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. 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.
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.