Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports was combined from 1267 with the office of Constable of Dover Castle. However, from 1708 Walmer Castle at Deal was to be preferred as the official residence of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. The Lord Warden also holds the office of Admiral of the Cinque Ports with a maritime jurisdiction extending to the middle of the English Channel, from Redcliffe near Seaford, in Sussex to the shore underneath the Naze Tower, encompassing Brightlingsea in Essex, the only Cinque Port north of the Thames. In earlier centuries the northern limit was taken as the Shoe Beacon in Essex. The
Cinque Ports Fortress Royal Engineers and signal companies of the Home Counties Division and a group of 'Kent and Sussex Fortress Companies'. These became the Sussex Fortress Royal Engineers based at Seaford, East Sussex, the Kent Fortress Royal Engineers based at Gillingham, and a company at Dover entitled the Cinque Ports Fortress Royal Engineers by 1910. At the outbreak of World War I the unit consisted of a single Electric Lights Company based at 16 Bench Street, Dover, forming part of South East Coastal Defences. With the expansion of the army the Cinque Ports company contributed personnel to the 1/6th and 1/7th Kent Fortress Companies