Weymouth, United Kingdom

In their early history, the two towns were rivals for trade and industry, and many arguments broke out over use of the harbour. In 1571, Queen Elizabeth I became so tired of the petitioning that she united the two towns in an Act of Parliament, to form a double borough of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis. Both towns have become known as Weymouth, despite Melcombe Regis being the main centre. The villages of Upwey, Broadwey, Preston, Wyke Regis, Chickerell, Southill, Radipole and Littlemoor have since become part of the built-up area.

Henry VIII had two Device Forts built to protect the south Dorset coast from invasion in the 1530s: Sandsfoot Castle in Wyke Regis and Portland Castle in Castletown. Coastal erosion forced the abandonment of Sandsfoot as early as 1665 and parts have since fallen into the sea. In 1635, around 100 emigrants from the town crossed the Atlantic Ocean on board the ship Charity and settled in Weymouth, Massachusetts. More townspeople emigrated to the Americas to bolster the population of Weymouth, Nova Scotia and Salem, Massachusetts, then called Naumking.

During the English Civil War, control of Weymouth changed a number of times and the town was much damaged as a result. When conflict first broke out in 1642, Weymouth was peacefully occupied by Parliamentarians, but it was captured in August the following year by 2,000 Royalist cavalry and held until June 1644, when it was retaken. Around 250 people were killed in the local Crabchurch Conspiracy when sympathetic residents let Royalist soldiers into the town in February 1645. It was recaptured later that month and remained in Parliamentarian hands for the remainder of the war, despite enduring a protracted siege.

The resort is among the first modern tourist destinations, after one of King George III's brothers, the Duke of Gloucester, built a country house named Gloucester Lodge there; the Duke spent the winter of 1780 at the house. George III made Weymouth his summer holiday residence on fourteen occasions between 1789 and 1805, even venturing into the sea in a bathing machine.

In celebration of the king's patronage, in 1810, a painted statue was placed on the seafront. Known simply as the King's Statue, it was extensively renovated in 2007–08. A second tribute to George III, completed two years earlier in 1808, is the mounted white horse at Osmington. Designed by local architect James Hamilton, and cut into the chalk hillside by soldiers under his direction, the figure measures 280 ft (85 m) long by 323 ft (98 m) high.

During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Weymouth started to gain some military importance: in 1795, the Red Barracks were constructed for cavalry troops stationed at Nothe. They were badly damaged in 1798 by a fire and work started on new buildings and a parade ground at Radipole. These premises could house 953 officers and men together with 986 horses. The Red Barracks were rebuilt in 1801 and given over to infantry.

Militarisation of the town continued through the Victorian era, with work starting on Portland Harbour in 1849. Built specifically to accommodate the new steam navy, the project was completed in 1872. Between 1860 and 1872, Nothe Fort was constructed at the entrance of Weymouth Harbour, overlooking the new harbour at Portland.

Weymouth's popularity, both as a trading port and as a holiday destination, also grew in this period and the arrival of the railway in 1857 boosted both industries. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution stationed a lifeboat at Weymouth for the first time on 26 January 1869. A boathouse was built with a slipway by the harbour and is still in use, although the lifeboat is now moored at a pontoon. In 1887, to mark the 50th year of Queen Victoria's reign, a multi-coloured Jubilee Clock was erected on the esplanade.

During World War I, about 120,000 Australian and New Zealand Army Corps personnel convalesced in Weymouth after being injured at Gallipoli or other theatres of the war; the existing army camps and mild climate made it an ideal location. Most of the soldiers were repatriated in 1919; some stayed and married local women.

Weymouth's military importance made it a target for German bombing during World War II. The air raids destroyed 1,200 civilian dwellings and killed 76 civilians, and the High Street was so badly damaged that much of it had to be demolished after the war. In September 1942 the first full-scale testing of the bouncing bomb was carried out west of the town, on the lagoon behind Chesil Bank. Tens of thousands of Allied troops departed Weymouth and Portland for D-Day, bound for Omaha in Normandy. By the time the conflict in Europe had ended, 517,816 troops and 144,903 vehicles had been through the ports.