Above photo, 1960s, kindly sent by Michael Mirams.

Above postcard, date unknown, kindly sent by Roger Corbett.

Above photo circa 1960s showing the site, (right). Kindly sent by Paul Curtis.

Above photo 2014, showing the site. Kindly sent by Paul Curtis.

From an email received 17 October 2019.

The "Gay Cavalier" is just part of a recreational complex built in 1934-1935 and financed by brewers Tomson & Wotton i.e. a first-class swimming pool called the Marina, together with a boating lake, as well as the Gay Cavalier bars area. I would have imagined that T & W were keen to have the bar bearing a name associated with one of its products, i.e. Cavalier Ale.

Regards,

Bob Lee.

Information from Paul Curtis from an email received 13 June 2017.

The Gay Cavalier was a Tomson and Wotton pub built into the vaults under Marina Road in Ramsgate.

The real origin of the name is obscure but note the following:-

It was likely named after various manifestations of the name in other walks of life.

Frans Hals’ portrait of the Laughing Cavalier. Gay was the old definition meaning light-hearted and carefree, showy.

McEwan's is well known for its cavalier mascot, broadly based on the Frans Hals painting, the Laughing Cavalier portrait, which has been used since the 1930s.

Worthington released a short animated advert for their beer in 1935 called “A Cheery Chune” featuring as a title the “Laughing Cavalier” with a cartoon Cavalier in the film.

The Gay Class were a class of twelve fast patrol boats that served with the Royal Navy from the early 1950s. All were named after types of soldiers or military or related figures, prefixed with 'Gay'. The class could be fitted as either motor gun boats or motor torpedo boats, depending on the type of armament they carried. One of these boats was P1046 – The Gay Cavalier.

The Gay Cavalier was also a 1957 British television adventure series set during the English Civil War and starring Christian Marquand as a fictionalised Captain Claude Duval. The series was made by Associated Rediffusion and shown on ITV between May and August 1957.

The pub name does not appear in any local directory of 1957 and before.

Importantly Cavalier gave its name to Tomson & Wotton’s premium Pale Ale, and a stylised interpretation of the Laughing Cavalier portrait was used as the logo of the beer. Tomson and Wotton, Britain’s oldest brewery, founded in 1634, amalgamated with Gardener's in 1951 and was closed in 1968. Hence the two different designs of beer mat above advertising theit Cavalier Pale Ale (1634). The pub closed a bit later than this I believe. The top photograph from the 60’s shows the site at the time in which you can see the Cavalier Logo and the word Bars. The remains of the vaults were evident until a few years ago when building development obscured them.

Hope this interests you,

Paul Curtis.