The actor and presenter Bob Holness lived in the town as a child and attended Herne Bay Primary School until moving to Ashford . Nicki Chapman , the judge on the UK television series '' Popstars '' and '' Pop Idol '' , was born and raised in the town . Originally from London , Daniel Tammet , the subject of the UK documentary '' The Boy with the Incredible Brain '' , has now moved to the town . He is an autistic savant with outstanding abilities in mathematics , sequence memorising and language learning . Lydia Cecilia Hill ( 1913 – 1940 ) , known as Cissie Hill , lived at Westcliff ; she was a favourite of Ibrahim of Johor and former dancer . The Yorkshire-born writer Will Scott lived and wrote in Herne Bay until his death in 1964 . During the late 1960s , many successful rock and jazz bands were formed around the city of Canterbury , creating a subgenre of music known as the Canterbury sound . Some of these musicians were residents of Herne Bay , including Dave Sinclair and Richard Coughlan of Caravan , and Kevin Ayers of Soft Machine . George W. M. Reynolds , one of the most popular British authors of the early Victorian era , moved to Herne Bay in 1854 and became one of the town 's Improvement Commissioners . The children 's writer Evelyn Whitaker was born there in 1844 . Héctor García Ribeyro , the Mayor of Lima in Peru during the 1950s , had part of his schooling at the now defunct Herne Bay International school . Colin Dixon , the depot manager held hostage with his family during the £ 53 million Securitas depot robbery of February 2006 , lived in Herne Bay at the time
Securitas depot robbery
Securitas depot robbery
Herne Bay