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Sir William Heygate Edmund Colborne "Billy" Butlin (29 September 1899 – 12 June 1980) was a British, South Africa-born entrepreneur whose name is synonymous with the British holiday camp.〔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 multi-million 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 returned 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 Eatons. In WWI he enlisted as a bugler in the Canadian Army. After the war, Butlin returned to England, bringing only £5 with him. 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 was able to purchase 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, all the time 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 WWII. 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. By the time he retired in 1968, Butlin had allowed hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers a self-contained vacation with a variety of entertainment. ==Early life== Butlin was born in the Cape Colony (part of modern day South Africa). His father, William Colborne Butlin (born June 1867), was the son of a clergyman; his mother, Bertha Cassandra Hill (born March 1878), was a member of a family of travelling showmen.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=infilms&id=I4904 )〕 They met at a young age when Bertha's parents were working a country fair that William attended and in December 1896 they were married. 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 try to keep 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 he died in March 1907. For a time Butlin joined his mother in travelling around the fair circuit In his autobiography, Butlin recorded that his mother remarried and emigrated to Canada around 1910〔Dacre 1982, p. 39.〕 and passenger lists of the period show Bertha travelling to Toronto via Montreal in 1912.〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=Library and Archives Canada )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=The National Archives )〕 For two years Butlin, and his cousin Jimmy Hill boarded with a widow in Bristol.〔 In December 1913 his mother returned and married Charles Robotham in Swindon. Butlin's mother and stepfather then asked him to join them in Toronto, Canada.〔 He was unhappy at school in Canada, mocked because of his English accent, and he left school at fourteen. Eventually he got a job as a messenger boy at Eatons, Toronto’s largest department store. One of the best aspects 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, indeed a taste of what was to become a very big part of his life. Later he transferred to Eatons advertising department where he drew black and white adverts, while studying at night school twice a week.〔Dacre 1982, p. 43.〕 In 1915, during World War I, Butlin volunteered somewhat reluctantly 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 actually 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 taking part 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 although only 15 at the time. The papers give his occupation as a "suitcase 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, with which 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 (2011:£) capital.〔 He made his way to Tiverton in Devon where his uncle, Marshall Hill, was a well known 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 his 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 in Olympia outside the Christmas Circus run by Bertram Mills. By the end of the season Butlin had been so successful that he could afford to bring his mother (by then widowed) to the UK from Canada.〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Billy Butlin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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