WWI Itinerary

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If you have a day to spare and would like to discover more about Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate's connections to the Great War, see below for suggestions of places to visit, things to do and related events.

Powell-Cotton Museum, Quex House and Gardens - In October 1914 the sudden arrival of a telegram, notifying Birchington that 100 wounded soldiers in need of emergency hospital accommodation were being sent by train to the village and asking that they be found hospital accommodation locally, marked the start of the work of the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) hospital at Quex. These first patients were unexpectedly Belgian soldiers.

Quex was one of 80 VAD hospitals in Kent and remained open until January 1919, treating hundreds of patients of many nationalities.

At Margate Museum see an exhibition dedicated to World War One including a picture of the downed zeppelin which caused so much bomb damage to Margate, the story of Westgate Royal Air Service Station, the Borough Memorial Boards to the servicemen who perished and the memorial plaque from Margate College.

Smack Boys Sailor Church and Harbour Mission - The Sailor’s Church and Harbour Mission, close by the foot of Jacob’s Ladder, was built in 1878 by Canon Eustace Brenan. He saw the need for spiritual guidance and physical help for the men and boys who made up the crews of the sailing smacks who fished out of Ramsgate in the nineteenth century. Later some 3,300 survivors of the First World War are known to have been fed, clothed, sheltered and medically treated here

On a St Peter's WWI War Graves Tour, visit the graves and remember those who died during or as a result of the 1914-18 World War

At Margate Cemetery visit the graves of those who lost their lives during WWI

In June 1914, a Royal Naval Air Station seaplane base, opened at St Mildred’s Bay (formerly Marsh Bay) in Westgate. It was not suitable for night flying and became too dangerous to land there, so a year later, on 29 May 1916, the airfield moved to Manston. The WWI seaplane lookout can still be seen at St Mildred’s Bay. Discover more about the history of the airfield at RAF Manston History Museum