Billy Butlin grave (29th September 1899 to 12th June 1980)

Nowadays people venture on holiday intermittently through the year but we used to have one main one. Often we stayed for a thrilling week at a Butlin’s holiday camp in Skegness or Filey. I can still imagine those golden happy halcyon days, just the four of us. The owner of these paradises was Billy Butlin, the undisputed Holiday Camp King and he was still alive then (he died in 1980.) For tax avoidance measures he spent the last twelve years of his life on Jersey. On a trip there with my mum we booked ourselves on The Rich And Famous Tour and it stopped off at Billy's grave. Here are some photos (taken before I started saluting.)

He ended life with immense wealth and a knighthood but started with crumbs. He was born in South Africa but his parents split up and he emigrated to Canada with his mum. By 21 he worked on a ship heading to England, cleaning cattle stalls out to pay for the ticket. Arriving at Liverpool he had just £5 and walked 180 miles to Bristol to join his mum’s family who had a fun fair. He ran a hoopla stall and painted a "B" for Butlin on the breast pocket of his white coat (remained his trademark.) When it rained the fairs didn’t do well and the idea of holidays camps came to him - places with large indoor entertainment areas which the rain couldn't ruin. One stall became several and he purchased fairground equipment and started his own travelling fair. Aged 28 he opened a static fairground in Skegness. Over the next decade he expanded his fairground empire, all the time thinking he could accommodation the visitors.

Aged 37 he opened his holiday camp at Skegness. Two years later he opened one in Clacton. World War Two intervened and - ever the businessman - he used the war to his advantage, persuading the MoD to complete three camps under construction as training camps. After the war he reclaimed these and opened four more camps as well as buying up three hotels. Their spectacular success meant he opened similar camps in other parts of the United Kingdom.

Always in touch with normal folk he gave small fortunes to charities and the handicapped and the elderly were given free holidays. Aged 65 he was given a knighthood for his humanitarian charity work and making holidays available to the masses. Aged 68 he retired and passed the empire onto his son Bobby. For tax reasons he moved to the low-tax Channel Islands and lived there for twelve years until his death from cancer aged 80.

As with many empire-builders there was an expense to his love life. In his twenties Billy married Doris "Dolly" Cheriton. It ended when he fell for her niece Norah (as punishment Dolly refused to grant a divorce.) Billy had to wait until he was almost sixty before Dolly died and he could marry Norah. It was over in months though as Billy had fallen in love with another woman Sheila Devine. Now it was Norah’s turn to punish Billy and refuse to divorce him. Laws changed though and Billy was able to get one. He remained with Sheila (who became Lady Butlin) until the end. The three marriages spawned two sons and four daughters.

The tour bus stopped at the cemetery for scant minutes - not long enough for nosey me. Some didn’t even get off to take some photos of the holiday camp king. The chap doing the tour said the bed represented Billy’s love of the ladies and was designed with Lady Butlin’s agreement - and her tongue wedged in her cheek. Later on the tour bus stopped for a moment outside 10-bedroom Blair Adam House where Billy lived (now posh flats.)

Blair Adam House where Billy lived on Jersey....