Westgate-on-Sea is a seaside community and civil parish in northeast Kent, England, with a population of 6,996 at the 2011 Census. It is within the Thanet local government area and surrounds the bigger seaside resort of Margate. Its two sandy beaches have continued to be a popular visitor attraction because the town's growth in the 1860s from a little farming neighborhood. The community is remarkable for when being the location of a Royal Naval Air Service seaplane base at St Mildred's Bay, which protected the Thames Estuary coastal towns throughout World War I. The community is the subject of Sir John Betjeman's poem, Westgate-on-Sea. Homeowners have included the 19th-century cosmetic surgeon Sir Erasmus Wilson as well as previous Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple. The artist Sir William Quiller Orchardson repainted numerous of his best-known photos while residing in Westgate-on-Sea. The British author Arnold Cooke participated in the town's Streete Preparatory School in the early 20th century, and Eton headmaster Anthony Chenevix-Trench invested the earliest couple of years of his education in the town.