1946 Midst Bands and bombs
By the TOP-HAT MAYOR OF RAMSGATE.
Alderman A.B.C. Kempe.
First published March 1946 by The Kent Messenger.
Copyright A.B.C. Kempe
I.S.B.N. 9781905477432
PRICE £5.99
This reprint in A4 folded lengthways format – 90 Printed Pages with card cover.
Alderman A. B. C. Kempe
Arthur Bloomfield Courtenay Kempe became Mayor of Ramsgate on November 9th 1938 - what kind of mayor would he be? The summer of 1939 was his only time as peace time mayor, and during that summer he made Ramsgate one great holiday camp. "All in holidays" at £3.17.6d. He had front page news time and again in the national press - he sold the towns holidays to Coventry. This man had only been a resident for 6 years but his love of the place must have been such that he gave his all as holiday mayor.
However war came in September 1939 - away went the top hat, on went the tin helmet, he put everything into looking after the residents of the town during the darkest days of the war, and for five years no other person was considered for the office of mayor.
In 1946 he produced this book who better to tell the story of Ramsgate - brightness as a holiday resort, and it's time as a front line town.
In 1950 he was admitted to the list of Honorary Freemen of the Borough of Ramsgate. This final honour was a fitting end to his public life in the town.
Contents include: -
Origin of the Top Hat; Five Mayoral Elections; War Breaks Out; Ramsgate Tunnels; Visit of the Pearly King’s and Queen’s; A Childless Town; View of the War from the Mayor’s Parlour Window; Contraband Control; War Relief Fund; The Dunkirk Epic; Work of the W.V.S. & the R.S.P.C.A.; Our Canadian Visitors; Work of the Hospital and Fire Brigades; Heroes of Ramsgate; Deeds of the Ramsgate Lifeboat; Raids of 1940 & 41 and Shelling of Ramsgate + more.
Illustrations include: - Tea Party on The Sands; Ramsgate’s Carnival Queen; A.B.C. Begins the Tunnels; Addington Street Bombed; Foyboat Inn Bombed; Land Mine in Wilfred Road; County Court Offices - peppered by a Heinkel III 1941; The Mahratta Sinks; and the S.S. Lulworth Mined; The Mayor welcomes Miss Coventry; The Gas Works Burn; Raid on Abbots Hill; Ramsgate Cemetery Bombed; Whitehall Road and Seafront Bombed and many more….
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