Sir William Heygate Edmund Colborne Butlin MBE (29 September 1899 – 12 June 1980) was an entrepreneur whose name is synonymous with the British holiday camp.

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.

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.

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.

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.

William Heygate Edmund Colborne Butlin was born on 29 September 1899 in the Cape Colony (part of the modern-day Republic of South Africa).

[w 1] 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.

[j 1] When the marriage failed, Butlin's mother returned to England with her children and rejoined her own family in Coaley, near Bristol.

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.

[j 1] In later interviews, Butlin claimed that he accidentally sawed the corners off his hoopla blocks,[w 2] but some observers such as The Sunday Herald report that he did it intentionally, displaying "logic and business sense".

[j 1] In either case, Butlin's actions allowed patrons to have a much higher success rate (approximately 3 in 5 for each ring)[n 10] and brought him more custom than fellow stall holders.

[n 10][w 1] Over the next few years Butlin toured the country with the Hills Travelling Fair, leaving his mother to run the Olympia site.

An advertisement costing £500 (2011:£28,000) 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 (2011:£167.00), according to the time of year.

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 ice breakers and jokes.

The councillors were soon won over when they learnt that the local traders in Skegness had seen an initial dip in custom after its construction followed by a rise as campers had visited the town and seasonal workers had come to spend their pay.

Filey became RAF Hunmanby Moor and Clacton, after being considered for use as a prisoner of war camp, was later used as a training site for the Pioneer Corps.

[n 20] 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.

His 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.

Using his experience in establishing holiday camps, Butlin devised activities and systems to boost morale, which led to his appointment as Director General of Hostels.

[n 23] Butlin's appointment to this role gave cause for concern in some quarters, with questions being asked of the under-secretary, Harold Macmillan, about the nature of his involvement.

[w 15][w 16] Late in the war, during the Allied advance through western Europe following the Normandy landings, Butlin was approached by General Bernard Montgomery, who asked him to help set up leave centres for the 21st Army Group.

Starting in Brussels, the "21 Club" concept quickly spread through western Europe, providing entertainment and relaxation for servicemen and women.

[n 25] After the war, it became apparent that most holiday camps in Britain had been damaged by troop occupation, and the situation was so bad that questions were raised in parliament.

Seeing potential for a camp in warmer climes, he formed a company under the chairmanship of Sir Bede Edmund Hugh Clifford and bought land in Grand Bahama.

[j 12] In the late 1940s Butlin successfully opened hotels outside the Skegness and Ayr camps, so he now saw his opportunity to expand into this market.

[w 21][n 35] Butlin actively engaged in charity work through the Grand Order of Water Rats and through the Variety Club of Great Britain.

[citation needed] In the 1920s while staying in Tiverton in Devon, and working with Marshall Hill, Butlin met Doris "Dolly" Mabel Cheriton, whose family owned the local fish and chip shop; the couple were married in 1927.

[j 18] Jacquie's daughter, Laura Emily, was the subject of a court case in the Cayman Islands in 1992, to establish whether she could be a beneficiary of her grandfather's estate.

[n 32] Butlin is listed as a member of the eclectic (and fictional) "orchestra" in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's recording, "The Intro and the Outro", where he is credited with playing the spoons.