The Postcard
A postcard that was published by B. & R. Ltd. of Liverpool. The card was posted in Margate on Sunday the 8th. June 1919 to:
Miss Woolwich,
38, St. Augustine's Road,
Camden Square,
Camden Town,
London N.
The pencilled message on the divided back was as follows:
"Had a lovely journey.
Looking quite brown,
both of us.
Love to both,
Amy."
The Margate Lifeboat Memorial
The statue on the right commemorates the sinking of a lifeboat after it was launched to aid a sinking ship. On the 2nd. December 1897, the town lifeboat ‘Friend To All Nations’ went to the aid of the sailing vessel ‘Persian Empire’. In appalling weather conditions, the lifeboat capsized on the Nayland Rock at Margate, with the loss of nine of the 13 souls on board.
Those who drowned included a father and son. The last of the 4 survivors, John Brockman, didn't die until 1958.
The pose of the statue is arresting: the standing figure, in his thick oilskin and primitive life jacket (unlike, said the inquest, the actual men who died), peers out to sea, one hand shading his eyes, with the other hand clenched in a determined fist.
He has moved one leg forward, as he unconsciously tries to get closer to what he is looking at. It is a well-caught attitude. The detail of the statue is less good: the face is bland, the folds and wrinkles of his clothing sketchy and not particularly convincing, the legs trunk-like, which is due to the heavy trousers but could have been easily avoided with a suitable fold.
The piece is signed by the sculptor, Frederick Callcott (1853-1923) and dated 1899, and stamped by Elkingtons, the founders. This seems to have been the main work by this rather obscure sculptor: Callcott was also responsible for bronze panels inside the Black Friar Pub, on the corner of Queen Victoria Street in the City of London, and exterior figurework on a pub in Black Prince Road, Lambeth.
Margate
Margate is a seaside town in Thanet, Kent, England, 24 km north-east of Canterbury. It includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay and Westbrook.
The town has been a significant maritime port since the Middle Ages, and was associated with Dover as part of the Cinque Ports in the 15th. century. It became a popular place for holidaymakers in the 18th. century, owing to easy access via the Thames, and later with the arrival of the railways.
Popular landmarks include the sandy beaches and the Dreamland amusement park. During the late 20th. century the town went into decline along with other British seaside resorts, but attempts are being made (2021) to revitalise the economy.
History of Margate
Margate was recorded as "Meregate" in 1264 and as "Margate" in 1299, but the spelling continued to vary into modern times. The name is thought to refer to a pool gate or gap in a cliff where pools of water are found, often allowing swimmers to jump in.
Margate gives its name to the relatively unknown yet influential Battle of Margate. It started on the 24th. March 1387, and was the last major naval battle of the Caroline War phase of the Hundred Years' War.
Despite the battle being named after Margate, very little actually happened near the coastal town - the battle is named after Margate as this was where an English fleet of 51 vessels was anchored.
Margate has been a leading seaside resort for at least 250 years. Like its neighbour Ramsgate, it has been a traditional holiday destination for Londoners drawn to its sandy beaches. Margate had a Victorian jetty which was largely destroyed by a storm in 1978.
In the late 18th. century, the town was chosen by the physician John Coakley Lettsom as the location for the Royal Sea Bathing Hospital, which was the first of its kind in Great Britain.
Like Brighton and Southend, Margate was infamous for gang violence between mods and rockers in the 1960's, and mods and skinheads in the 1980's.
The Turner Contemporary Art Gallery occupies a prominent position next to the harbour, and was constructed there with the specific aim of revitalising the town. The Thanet Offshore Wind Project, completed in 2010, is visible from the seafront.
Margate Tourism
For at least 250 years Margate has been drawing Londoners to its beaches, Margate Sands. The bathing machines in use at Margate were described in 1805 as:
"Four-wheeled carriages, covered with canvas, and
having at one end of them an umbrella of the same
materials which is let down to the surface of the water,
so that the bather descending from the machine by a
few steps is concealed from the public view, whereby
the most refined female is enabled to enjoy the
advantages of the sea with the strictest delicacy".
The Dreamland Amusement Park (featured in "The Jolly Boys' Outing" episode of the TV series Only Fools and Horses) is situated in the centre of Margate. After its closure in 2006, it reopened in 2015 following a lengthy campaign by the "Save Dreamland" Campaign Group.
The Scenic Railway roller coaster at Dreamland, which opened in 1920, is Grade II* Listed, and is the second oldest in the world. It was severely damaged by fire on the 7th. April 2008, but has now been fully restored and reopened to the public.
Cliftonville, next to Margate, had an Arnold Palmer mini golf course. It closed, and was illegally converted into a skate park, which was later shut down by the council amid safety concerns.
Margate Theatres and Exhibitions
There are two notable theatres, the Theatre Royal in Addington Street – the second oldest theatre in the country – and the Tom Thumb Theatre, the second smallest in the country, in addition to the Winter Gardens.
The Theatre Royal was built in 1787, burned down in 1829 and was remodelled in 1879. From 1885 to 1899, actor-manager Sarah Thorne ran a school for acting at the Theatre Royal which is regarded as Britain's first formal drama school.
Actors who received their initial theatrical training there include Harley Granville-Barker, Evelyn Millard, Louis Calvert, George Thorne, Janet Achurch, Adelaide Neilson and Irene and Violet Vanbrugh.
An annual jazz festival takes place in June.
In September, an annual car show commences known as "Oh So Retro" featuring classic and retro vehicles, trade stalls and family-friendly entertainment.
Margate Museum in Market Place explores the town's seaside heritage in a range of exhibits and displays.
The Margate Grotto and Caves
The Shell Grotto, has walls and roof covered in elaborate decorations of over four million shells. These cover 2,000 square feet (190 m2) in complex patterns. It was discovered in 1835, and is of unknown age and origin. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building.
First discovered in 1798, the Margate Caves (also known as the Vortigern Caves) are situated at the bottom of Northdown Road.
The Walpole Bay Tidal Pool
The Walpole Bay Tidal Pool is a Grade 2 listed tidal sea bathing pool built in 1937. The pool covers over four acres, and its dimensions are 450 ft long, 300 ft wide at the seaward end and 550 ft long at the landward end. The water in the pool is refreshed by the incoming tide twice a day, and fresh water springs rise from the beach within the walls.
The Turner Contemporary Gallery
The former chairman of the Margate Civic Society, John Crofts, had a plan to develop a centre that would show the link that the painter JMW Turner shared with Margate. Turner described the Thanet skies as "The loveliest in all Europe."
Crofts became increasingly determined to create such a gallery, and in 1998 the Leader of Kent County Council met a number of people from the art world to discuss the idea.
They hoped that the centre would regenerate the once-thriving town of Margate and offer an alternative to Margate's traditional tourist trade. The County Council offered to partly fund the building of the Turner Gallery. In 2001 the Turner Contemporary was officially established. The view from the gallery is similar to that seen by Turner from his lodging house.
To reduce the cost, Thanet District Council chose a new site inland from the harbour wall. The scheme was supported by the artist Tracey Emin, who was brought up in Margate. The building itself was designed by David Chipperfield Architects after the abandonment of the design by Snøhetta + Spence.
Building work started in 2008, but the project's initiator, John Crofts, died in 2009. The Turner Contemporary Gallery officially opened on the 16th. April 2011.
Historic Sites in Margate
There is a 16th.-century, two-storey timber-framed Tudor house built on a flint plinth in King Street.
Margate's Jubilee Clock Tower was built to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887, although not completed until 1889. It had a Time Ball mechanism, mounted on a mast atop the tower, which was raised a few minutes before 1 pm each day and dropped at precisely 1 pm, thereby allowing residents, visitors and ships to know the exact time.
The Time Ball fell out of use many years ago, but the Margate Civic Society raised funds to have the Time Ball repaired and brought back into use. This was successful, and a civic ceremony celebrated the restoration on the 24th. May 2014, Queen Victoria's birthday, and the 125th. anniversary of the Clock Tower's official opening. The Time Ball now drops at 1 pm each day, and is one of only a handful of working time balls in the world.
Draper's Mill is a smock mill built in 1845 by John Holman. It was working by wind until 1916 and by engine until the late 1930's. It was saved from demolition, and is now restored and open to the public.
Cultural References to Margate
Margate features at the start and as a recurrent theme in Margate writer Iain Aitch's travelogue, A Fete Worse Than Death. The author was born in the town.
T. S. Eliot, who in 1921 recuperated after a mental breakdown in the suburb of Cliftonville, commented in his poem The Waste Land Part III - The Fire Sermon:
"On Margate sands.
I can connect
Nothing with nothing".
Margate features as a destination in Graham Swift's novel Last Orders and its film adaptation. The character Jack Dodds had asked to have his remains scattered at Margate, and the book tells the tale of the drive to Margate and the memories evoked on the way.
The Victorian author William Thackeray used out-of-season Margate as the setting for his early unfinished novel 'A Shabby Genteel Story'.
"Margate" is the title of a UK single released by Chas & Dave in 1982.
"Margate Fhtagn" is a song by UK steampunk band The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing. The story related in the song combines the Victorian tradition of the seaside holiday with the works of H. P. Lovecraft, specifically the Cthulhu Mythos, to tell the tale of a Victorian family going on a seaside holiday to Margate, which gets interrupted by Cthulhu rising from the sea.
It is thought that Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote his Lark Ascending whilst walking along the cliffs in Margate.
Margate in Film and Television
J. M. W. Turner's long-term relationship with Mrs. Sophia Booth of Margate was featured in the film Mr. Turner (2014).
The railway station and Dreamland feature prominently in the Only Fools & Horses episode "The Jolly Boys' Outing" (1989).
In series 4 (2017) of the British television crime drama Peaky Blinders, the character Alfie Solomons chooses to reside at Margate, where he's shot on the beach by Tommy Shelby.
The town appeared on BBC TV's The Apprentice in May 2009.
The 2012 BBC television drama series True Love was set and filmed in Margate. The show had its first public screening at the Turner Contemporary.
The 2014 ITV sitcom Edge of Heaven was set in a 1980's-themed bed and breakfast establishment in Margate.
The Russian Civil War
So what else happened on the day that Amy posted the card?
Well, on the 8th. June 1919, Royal Air Force Fairey seaplanes attacked four armed Soviet Steamboats on Lake Onega, Russia, during the Russian Civil War.
Although the attack did little damage, the Soviet boats were surprised and forced to flee, pursued by four smaller and less-well-armed Royal Navy torpedo boats.
Bill Newton, V.C. and his Execution in 1943
The day also marked the birth in St. Kilda, Victoria of Bill Newton, Australian Air Force officer, commander of the No. 22 Squadron during World War II, and recipient of the Victoria Cross.
On the 16th. March 1943, Newton led a sortie on the Salamaua Isthmus in Papua New Guinea in which his Boston was hit repeatedly by Japanese anti-aircraft fire, damaging fuselage, wings, fuel tanks and undercarriage.
In spite of this he continued his attack and dropped his bombs at low level on buildings, ammunition dumps and fuel stores, returning for a second pass at the target to strafe it with machine-gun fire.
Newton managed to get his crippled machine back to base, where it was found to be marked with ninety-eight bullet holes. Two days later, he and his two-man crew made a further attack on Salamaua with five other Bostons. As he bombed his designated target, Newton's plane was seen to burst into flames, having been raked by cannon fire from the ground. Attempting to keep his aircraft aloft as long as possible to get his crew away from enemy lines, he was able to ditch in the sea approximately 1,000 yards (910 m) offshore.
The Boston's navigator, Sergeant Basil Eastwood, was killed in the forced landing but Newton and his wireless operator, Flight Sergeant John Lyon, survived and managed to swim ashore. They were captured by a Japanese patrol.
The two airmen were taken to Salamaua and interrogated until the 20th. March, before being moved to Lae where Lyon was bayoneted to death on the orders of Rear Admiral Ruitaro Fujita, the senior Japanese commander in the area.
Newton was taken back to Salamaua where, on the 29th. March 1943, he was ceremonially beheaded with a Samurai sword by Sub-Lieutenant Uichi Komai, the naval officer who had captured him.
Komai was killed in the Philippines soon afterwards, and Fujita committed suicide at the end of the war.
