Top Hats & Tunnels
By: Paul Gardner
Paul Gardner investigates the wartime story of the Ramsgate tunnels and their instigators
On the 1st of June 1939, the Duke of Kent officially opened the first ¼ mile length of the Deep Tunnel Shelters in Ramsgate.
By December, the full 3.25 miles of shelters had been complete, forming the largest purpose-built air raid shelter in the country.
Capable of housing up to 60,000 people and equipped with a temporary operating theatre, emergency generators, lighting, bunks, and benches.
Duke of Kent officially opened the first ¼ mile length of the Deep Tunnel Shelters in Ramsgate.
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Arthur Bloomsfield Courtenay Kempe was born Exeter 1882. Married his wife Emily (born 1886) who came from Halesford, Yorkshire. Arthur became Mayor of Ramsgate on November 9th 1938 dressing like one too, top hat and frock coat.
Elected years; 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942 (The eldest son of Dr. A.W. Kempe of Exeter, who came to Ramsgate in 1931). Held record for longest number of successive years in office. A descendant of Archbishop of Canterbury. Elected to town council in 1933 for West Central Ward. In 1935 elected to aldermanic bench.
He lived in the town, in Bursill Crescent, Ramsgate taking an active part in social events, especially noted for his work as organiser of Ramsgate’s Carnival week, which helped raise money for Ramsgate General Hospital.
Elected member of management the committee of the hospital and as a life governor, in recognition for his efforts.
Known as “The top-Hatted Mayor” in the days before the war, with a keen sense of publicity which helped to further Ramsgate’s image as a seaside resort second to none. (Until the war interrupted matters).
Entertained many visitors over his time as Mayor, from “Pearly Queen to Royalty”.
IMAGE LINKED: wikimedia Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Took up task of organising entertainments for the troops, for which efforts he was made welfare officer for the district and honorary Chairman and Chairman in 1942 of Sands and Entertainment Committee and organizer of Ramsgate’s ‘Sports Week’ a local publication of activities.
He was only a peacetime mayor for a short time before the outbreak of World War Two on, he set out to make Ramsgate into a holiday camp of a town. In September 1939 off came the top hat and on went the tin hat and he put all of his efforts into looking after the population of Ramsgate.
Thus a 3¼ mile (5.2 km) semi-circular network of tunnels was dug beneath northern Ramsgate, connecting to the existing railway tunnel. It was opened by the Duke of Kent on 1 June 1939, three months before the outbreak of war, and visited during the war by Winston Churchill.
The network was capable of sheltering 60,000 people, although Ramsgate’s civilian population at the time was approximately 33,000.
He and the borough engineer Dick Brimmell were responsible for the network of air raid shelter tunnels under the town that saved so many lives, they are a truly remarkable achievement.
The first tunnel, built by the London, Chatham, and Dover railway company (LCDR), facilitated access to a newly constructed seafront station and was built in direct competition with their rivals who operated a station on the seafront at Margate (approximately 4 miles north-west).
The tunnel itself was ¾ mile long and ran on a gradient of 1 in 75, which proved to be an issue for early locomotives and there were several recorded accidents.
The rail access to the seafront provided a boost to Ramsgate, helping to cement its reputation as a key holiday destination, throughout both the Victorian and later Edwardian eras with the trade supporting thousands of livelihoods in guesthouses, hotels, and restaurants.
Five months earlier, in March, Ramsgate’s Air Raid Precautions (ARP) Committee had been established with the towns dutiful civil servants starting the unenviable task of preparing the town for war.
They were led by the town’s experience of the First World War when Ramsgate was subjected to several significant air raids, leading to the construction of several primitive subterranean shelters.
This was despite official government guidelines, which were dismissive and officially against the construction of deep shelters. Ramsgate’s ARP Committee felt that the geological conditions and the precedent set by the First World War were exceptional.
So, they ordered the Borough Surveyor Richard Brimmell to set about formulating a plan to reinforce the original shelters and to examine the possibility of constructing a larger scale deep shelter system.
The enemy being only 15 minutes flying time across the Channel the need to get quick access was essential.
Ramsgate’s Tunnel
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In June 1938, Brimmell’s plans were submitted for approval, to the ARP Department at the Home Office, but in line with official government policy, were turned down in September.
Not deterred, Ramsgate’s ARP Committee, conferred with Brimmell to produce a revised scheme, which called for the construction of 3.25 miles of tunnels, which would house the entire population of the borough.
The Committee felt that, ‘every possible endeavour should be made to obtain approval for the modified scheme’.
To this end, Ramsgate’s then Mayor Alderman Arthur Kempe, supported by the town’s MP Captain Balfour (Under-Secretary of State for Air), organised a meeting at the Home Office, with Kempe leading a delegation to London in February 1939.
Kempe’s persuasive argument must have worked, on the 20th of March 1939, Ramsgate finally received word, construction could begin at once on the Deep Tunnel Shelters.
Work started immediately and continued day and night at a rate of 24 feet (7.3m) a day, with the chalk (on which Ramsgate lies), being cut, with pneumatic shovels before it was transported via a narrow-gauge railway and then hoisted up through construction shafts to the surface.
Impressively, the completed tunnels incorporated a gradient of 1 in 600, which not only kept them above the natural water table, but in addition, allowed for a completely self-ventilating system.
The depth and comparatively small size of the Deep Tunnel Shelters (approximately 7ft by 6.5ft) meant only limited concrete reinforcement was necessary, restricted to shallow sections and entrances.
All of which incorporated two right-angled bends to counteract bomb blast. The tunnels galleries also followed the road network to remove problems associated with easement and allowed the roads to act as detonating slabs, serving to mitigate the damage caused by direct hits.
Map – Ramsgate
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There had been those who never wanted these tunnels built, fearing that they would undermine wartime morale. But Ramsgate had been bombed during the First World War.
As another showdown with Germany seemed likely, the mayor, Arthur Kempe, knew that Ramsgate, less than 30 miles from the Continent, could soon be in the firing line again.
He enlisted the help of the local Tory MP, Captain Harold Balfour, to get the necessary permits to start work on new civilian air raid tunnels.
For three years, the Home Office had dismissed the idea as ‘impracticable’, but Kempe persisted. Balfour was a friend of air raid minister Sir John Anderson, the man who would become synonymous with shelters at the bottom of gardens up and down the land.
And in March 1939, Kempe got the thumbs-up. By June of that year, the first section had already been finished and the Duke of Kent did the honours at the official opening. A former Policeman quoted:
“But after 200 yards or so there’s a turning in to another tunnel and, suddenly, a labyrinth. It runs for mile after mile, one tunnel branching off another but all of them wide enough for a bunk bed and two passers-by. And every 25 yards, a recess has been dug in to the rock. Screened off by a blanket, each one of these would have housed a chemical loo. It’s so extensive that at the main entrance needs a guide with a walkie-talkie and instructions to summon help ‘if we do not resume contact within half an hour’. It’s amazing to think they could have got the whole town down here with room to spare”.
A Home Office official, E. J. Hodsoll, visited these tunnels in February 1941 and was appalled by the makeshift homes he found.
‘The smell and the general atmosphere become pretty nasty at times,’ he wrote to his superiors. ‘It is a shocking state of affairs to have a considerable body of people leading this sub-human existence.’
The residents, on the other hand, were very proud of a feat of engineering completed in a matter of months by a local construction firm for the sum of £40,000. There were doors to the tunnels all over Ramsgate, each built with an L-shaped entrance hall so that an explosion at the top would not send shrapnel down the shaft.
Electric lighting and a water supply were installed, along with a natural ventilation system. The wartime experiences of neighbouring Dover might be more famous.
But at perhaps the most pivotal stage of the Second World War, Ramsgate was at the very heart of the action. First, as 330,000 troops came through the disaster-cum-miracle of Dunkirk in May 1940, it was to Ramsgate that many of them escaped.
public notice
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Then, as the Battle of Britain raged in the skies above, the town gained another claim to fame on August 24, 1940.
It was a relatively quiet Saturday lunchtime when the air raid sirens suddenly wheezed in to life. Moments later, Ramsgate became the first place in Britain to experience the full force of the Luftwaffe’s ‘Blitzkrieg’.
In the space of five minutes, a formation of Junkers Ju88 bombers dropped more than 500 bombs in what elderly locals still call ‘the murder raid’.
Even after the bombs were dropped, fighters returned to machine gun any survivors they could find, including the firemen struggling to douse the flaming gasworks.
Sadly, the civilian death toll amounted to 29. The tunnels had very quickly proved their worth.
Value for money: Despite the opposition from Government officials, the residents were very proud of a feat of engineering completed in a matter of months by a local construction firm for the sum of £40,000.
Blue Plaques
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Both Kempe and the borough engineer Dick Brimmell were responsible for the network of air raid shelter tunnels under the town that saved so many lives, they are a truly remarkable achievement.
It was reported throughout the War no casualties were suffered due to bombing as quick easy access to the tunnels was achieved via the 13 entrances. ABC Kempe is buried in Ramsgate Cemetery in plot LA431 an unkempt kerbed grave. The Tunnels can be visited and a welcome gained form the volunteers.
After much research and reference to local sources (with attribution) neither Arthur nor Richard were referenced as Freemasons. Maybe the 1921 Census will provide some answers, when released, but with such commitment to the Local Community and essential ‘service’….
…. it would be hard not to consider He, A B C Kempe and R. Brimmel were at least following the tenets of masonry !
Article by: Paul Gardner
Paul was Initiated into the Vale of Beck Lodge No 6283 (UGLE) in the Province of West Kent, England serving virtually continuously in Office and occupying the WM Chair on three occasions.
Paul joined Stability Lodge No 217 in 1997 (UGLE) and now resides with Kent Lodge No 15, (UGLE) the oldest Atholl Lodge with continuous working since 1752, where he was Secretary and now Assistant Secretary and archivist, having been WM in 2002.
In Holy Royal Arch he is active in No 15 Chapter and Treasurer of No 1601, which was the first UGLE Universities Scheme Chapter in 2015.
He was Secretary of the Association of Atholl Lodges which maintains the heritage of the remaining 124 lodges holding ‘Antients’ Warrants and has written a book on Laurence Dermott. - https://antients.org
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