In the Chronicles of The Venerable Bede, there are descriptions of the arrival of Augustine in England, information about his work and eventually, the inscription on the tomb of the Saint. These are the extracts that make a good summary:

Augustine is sent to Briton:

'in the fourteenth year of the reign of the Emporer Maurice (597) and about 150 years after the coming of the Angles to Briton, Gregory, prompted by devine inspiration sent his servant of God named Augustine and several more god-fearing monks with him, who preached the word of God to the English race'

The building of the Cathedral:

'After Augustine had received his episcopal See in the Royal City (Canterbury) he, with the help of the King, restored the church in it which, as he had been informed, had been built in ancient times by the hands of Roman believers; he dedicated it in the name of the Holy Saviour our Lord and God Jesus Christ, and there he established a dwelling for himself and all his successors.'

The inscription on the tomb:

'Here resteth the Lord Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury
Who erewhile was sent hither by blessed Gregory Bishop of the City
of Rome, and being helped by God to work miracles, drew over King
Ethelbert and his race from the worship of idols to the faith of Christ.
Having ended in peace the days of his ministry, he departed hence
seven days before the Kalend of June in the reign of the same king,
A.D.605.'

The three main figures in the story of Saint Augustine are himself, King Ethelbert and his Christian Queen, Bertha. Many Kent school children have been raised on a historical diet of Ethelbert and Bertha but I don't know if that tradition continues today. Augustine was sent to England by Pope Gregory, 1400 years ago, in 597 to convert the savage tribes in the savage land of the Angles. Fortunately, Augustine already had an ally, Queen Bertha, the wife of Ethelbert, the King, who was already a christian and used to worship at the Church of St. Martin's, which still survives and is the oldest church in England.

Augustine supposedly first landed at Ebbsfleet, at the South West end of the Wantsum Channel together with his monks. I am not sure on ths point but I believe he was then told to cross the Wantsum and wait on the Isle of Thanet until Ethelbert had made a decision as to whether to receive the missionaries. As the result of persuasion by Queen Bertha and her chaplain, Luidhard, Augustine was allowed to proceed to Canterbury where it would seem, he also used the Church of St. Martin's as a base.

It would seem that Augustine worked quickly on the King and it is said that on Whitsunday, 597, Ethelbert was baptised a christian in the Saxon font in St. Martin's Church. Ethelbert then left Canterbury for Reculver and made a generous donation of his palace and its grounds to Augustine and the monks. They raised a Church on the same site where the present Cathedral now stands and it was consecrated in 602.