A new blue plaque (design guide above) was put in place just before the 250th anniversary of her birth on December 17th 1775 and an official unveiling ceremony will follow in January. It is a blue plaque championed by Denise Blunn with support from Cllr. Jane Heatherington.

The background is that Jane Austen’s brother Frank was in the navy and in 1803 was posted to Ramsgate where he lived at 14 Albion Place. His military task was to lead the Sea Fencibles,  a local volunteer group of sailors and labourers who were paid a shilling a day to defend the coast against a feared attack by Napoleon. The French had amassed a fleet of flat-bottomed troop carriers and Pegwell Bay was thought at high risk for a landing site.

The story of Frank in Ramsgate is one of instant infatuation with a local girl, Mary Gibson, interrupted by naval duties. Engaged within a year but then 3 months later given command of HMS Leopard blockading Boulogne and later, HMS Canopus, in which he saw action and gained both financial reward and a gold medal. He was not able to return to Ramsgate for three year and then married Mary in St Lawrence Church on 24th July 1806.

Supporting evidence of Jane Austen’s visit to Ramsgate to see her brother Frank, comes from the autobiography from Egerton Brydges, the brother of Jane’s friend Anne Lefroy, in which he says: ‘When I knew Jane Austen, I never suspected that she was an authoress: but my eyes told me that she was fair and handsome, slight and elegant, but with cheeks a little too full. Last time that I think that I saw her was at Ramsgate in 1803; perhaps she was then about 27 years old.’