Billy Butlin - Personal Life

Personal Life

Butlin remained close to his mother, both in following her to Canada and in arranging for her to come home after the death of his stepfather. She died in 1934 and never saw his first holiday camp, By contrast, Butlin makes no mention in his biography of his father after returning from Canada. Public records from South Africa show that his father remained in Cape Town for the rest of his life, dying in 1954.

In the 1920s while staying in Tiverton in Devon, and working with Marshall Hill Butlin met Doris "Dolly" Mabel Cheriton (born 1898) whose family owned the local fish and chip shop and the couple were married in 1927. However by the early 1930s the marriage broke up and they separated. Soon after, Butlin met and fell in love with Norah Faith Cheriton (Dolly's niece, born 1914). Dolly refused to grant Butlin a divorce. It was not until Dolly's death in 1958 that he and Norah were free to marry. The second marriage lasted only a few months, as Butlin had already fallen in love with Sheila Edwina Devine. This time it was Norah who refused to grant divorce. In 1975, with divorce law having changed, Butlin was able to divorce Norah and marry Sheila with whom he remained until his death.

Butlin had several children from his three marriages: Shirley (born 1931 to Dolly), Robert (born to Nora in 1934 as Robert F. Reeves), Cherie (also known as Cherry) (born to Nora in 1939), Sandra (born 1941), William Jr (also known as Billy) (born 1960 to Sheila), and Jacquie (born to Sheila). Bertha Hill's obituary records "William, Dolly and baby Shirley" and on Shirley's fifth birthday the local Skegness newspaper noted that she invited many of her friends to her father's holiday camp for her party. Little reference is made to her after this time, and her name is not listed on her father's grave with her still-living siblings. Sandra died in 1976 at the age of 34 (the same year Butlin's second wife Norah died.) William Jr died of cancer in 2003. Robert took over from his father running the company from 1968 to 1984 and died of lung cancer on 31 December 2008. Jacquie lives on Jersey, where she runs a clothes shop. 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. Cherie is an actress.