Charles Larkin

Larkin promoted the Parliamentary reforms in 1832 that gave the vote to every householder whose property rental value was more than £10.

Before the act, certain English boroughs were entitled to send MPs to parliament, while the remaining parts of each county voted as a whole.

Charles Larkin died, aged 58, at his home on Boley Hill, Rochester, on 12 September 1833.

A contemporary newspaper report said: "It is a column nearly sixty feet in height, built of a composition called concrete, in imitation of stone, and the structure, by its correct and elegant proportions, reflects great credit upon the architect, Mr Ranger.

By August, 1860, it had fallen into such a state of disrepair that one newspaper reported: It was repaired in 1869 by Benjamin Horne who added the inscription: Concrete, however, was plainly a poor material for monuments, and the column was renovated again in 1974.