Westgate-on-sea
Westgate-on-Sea is a seaside community as well as civil parish in northeast Kent, England, with a population of 6,996 at the 2011 Census. It is within the Thanet local government area as well as borders the larger seaside resort of Margate. Its two sandy coastlines have continued to be a popular tourist destination because the town's development in the 1860s from a little farming community. The community is remarkable for once being the place of a Royal Naval Air Service seaplane base at St Mildred's Bay, which defended the Thames Estuary coastal towns throughout World War I. The town is the subject of Sir John Betjeman's rhyme, Westgate-on-Sea. Locals have actually included the 19th-century cosmetic surgeon Sir Erasmus Wilson as well as former Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple. The artist Sir William Quiller Orchardson repainted several of his best-known images while staying in Westgate-on-Sea. The British composer Arnold Cooke attended the town's Streete Preparatory School in the early 20th century, and Eton headmaster Anthony Chenevix-Trench spent the earliest few years of his education and learning in the town.
