When Sir Harry went roamin’ at the opening of a holiday camp

WHAT a mixture for this group photograph. Centreleft is the unmistakable Sir Harry Lauder, arguably Scotland’s most famous entertainer, although he has adapted a more mainstream walking stick – presumably because he needed to lean on it – rather than his usual twisted one.

The chap with the wellgroomed hair is Billy Butlin, although the photographer was a bit more formal and referred to him as Mr WE Butlin MBE. Spoiling the line of his suit by stuffing what looks like a speech in his pocket spoils the line of his suit as he gives a rather masonic handshake to a woman sporting a dead animal around her neck. She is Mrs Tom Johnston, wife of the Scottish Tourist Board chairman, and is officially opening the Butlin’s Camp at Ayr in 1947.

Feminism was still far away then as married women were often referred to by their husband’s name, so her own Christian name is not recorded by the photographer.

But this wouldn’t be Billy Butlin without a splurge of showmanship so we also have girl bagpipers, women in shorts, and a couple of soldiers. He also announced a £10,000 donation to have a Burns Memorial Theatre built on the site, equivalent to a quarter of a million pounds today.

That great Burns’ actor John Cairney later recorded in a book about the bard that the Burns Federation, not too keen on a whizz-kid like Butlin, said the theatre idea was unworkable, and sent the cheque back.

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