Westgate-on-Sea

Westgate-on-Sea.
Westgate-on-Sea is a seaside town and civil parish in northeast Kent, England, with a population of 6,996 at the 2011 Census. It is within the Thanet local government district and borders the larger seaside resort of Margate. Its two sandy beaches have attracted tourists since the town's development in the 1860s from a small farming community. The local St Mildred's Bay was the site of a Royal Naval Air Service seaplane base, which defended the Thames Estuary coastal towns during World War I. The town is the subject of John Betjeman's poem "Westgate-on-Sea". Residents have included the 19th-century surgeon Erasmus Wilson and former Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple. The artist William Quiller Orchardson painted several of his best-known pictures while living in Westgate-on-Sea. The British composer Arnold Cooke and Eton headmaster Anthony Chenevix-Trench attended local schools as children during the early 20th century.