Billy butlin autobiography summary

Named William Heygate Edmund Colborne Butlin by his parents William, son of a clergyman and Bertha, the daughter of a baker, who had become a travelling showman. His parents had emigrated to South Africa some years earlier. Bertha returned home with the young Billy and brother Binkie to her family in Bristol England, following the breakup of her marriage to William.

Leaving the two boys with her sister Jessie, she travelled around the summer fairs in her caravan running a gingerbread stall for her brother, Marshall Hill. His brother Binkie sadly died early of infantile paralysis and Billy then joined his mother on her travels. His mother Bertha remarried and emigrated to Canada leaving Billy in Bristol to continue his education before joining his mother in Canada in It was during this period of schooling in Bristol that Billy found he had an aptitude for art and drawing.

Ever ambitious to move on Billy attended art school in the evening to try to develop his gift for drawing and painting.

This is the story of Billy

A perk of the job was that he was able to visit their summer camp, which gave him his first taste of a real holiday, a taste of what was to become a very big part of his life. At the start of the war in Billy signed up by accident. His colleagues were given a badge, which proclaimed this fact, and Billy rather fancied one of these. So like many young men of the time he saw the war as a big adventure, and went along to the recruiting office and stating that he wanted to join the army.

Billy was not good at filling in forms and forgot to mention that he was just volunteering to be a despatch rider; he also inflated his age by a year. The sergeant duly asked him to return the next day to be fitted for his uniform. On his way home he realised his mistake and did think about going straight back to tell the recruiting sergeant, but worried that he might get into trouble he thought better of it.

The truth dawned on him, he had enlisted.