"A champion of English freedom" reads the inscription on this monument to John Wilkes. As a young man he had a reputation as a rake (a bit of a lad about town) but at the age of 30 he put his energies into being a politician albeit with (for the time) rather radical views.
He campaigned to have parliamentary speeches published in full and introduced the first bill to reform parliament. During the American War of Independence he supported the American rebels.
