Edmund Francis Davis

Edmund Francis Davis (April 1845 – 5 September 1889) was a British American solicitor and a businessman who once owned the Westgate Estate, in Kent, and the Granville Hotel, Ramsgate.

Davis was a very charismatic figure, who has been given undue credit for the growth of Westgate on Sea, as he was proprietor of the Estate for only two years.

In December 1878 he put on an experiment in lighting part of the sea front at Westgate with electricity, bringing down visitors from London by special trains and then entertaining them extravagantly.

Amongst his achievements were the laying out of the pleasure gardens on the cliff tops and the building of the Baths and Assembly Rooms, opened at St Mildred's Bay in January 1880.

However, he was greatly stretched financially (he still had mortgages relating to the Albion and Granville Estates in Ramsgate) and by January 1880 was struggling to pay even the interest owing.

In November 1886, he was sued by a trader for an unpaid bill at the Empire Club, London, where Davis served as a committee member.