The toppling of slaver Edward Colston in Bristol has made us look at the history of the monuments standing in towns and cities across our country.

In Kent that has seen a campaign launched to pull down Lord Kitchener in Chatham and as the public debate on how we should reflect our history rages on, we have looked at some of the people this county has put on a pedestal.

Mohinder Singh Pujji

In 1940, aged 22, Mohinder Singh Pujji became one of the first Sikh Indian pilots accepted into the Royal Air Force as the Second World War began.

Flying in active service with Squadron 43 RAF, also known as the 'Fighting Cocks', he insisted on wearing his dastar. He even had a spacial strap made so he could wear an oxygen mask over the headdress.

He became squadron leader and was forced down twice, but it was eventually tuberculosis which got him discharged from duty. He later recovered and settled in Gravesend.

During the war, Sqn Pujji spoke of how he never felt like an outsider in Britain. Though later on he noticed the efforts of non-white people were largely ignored and campaigned for the recognition of Sikh contributions to the British war effort.

In 2005, he protested the use of a Spitfire's image in the British National Party's campaign literature, saying: "They forget people from different backgrounds helped in the Second World War.

"I am proof of this - I was flying a Spitfire. I also met Winston Churchill. Even in those days, there were ethnic minorities fighting for the British."

Mohinder Singh Pujji died of a stroke at Darent Valley Hospital on September 18, 2010, aged 92.

His statue was unveiled on November 28, 2014 in St Andrew's Gardens, Gravesend with the inscription: "To commemorate those from around the world who served alongside Britain in all conflicts 1914-2014."

The Folkestone Mermaid

Cornelia Parker designed The Folkestone Mermaid with inspiration from Copenhagen's 'Little Mermaid' statue as well the famous fairy-tale of Hans Christian Anderson and The Sea Lady by HG Wells, both of whom have connections to the county.

The statue is meant to engage with the seaside town's community and depict the reality of the female form.

The statue is also meant to allude to the threat of climate change – the woman's distant gaze bringing attention to the issue of rising sea levels and how this impacts those living by the coast.

Before the cast for the statue was made, locals who were 'a lookalike of the idealised Copenhagen Mermaid, but ... a real person, a free spirit' were invited to model for the statue.

Georgina Baker, a local mother-of-two, was chosen for the project and is now immortilised in bronze gazing out onto the waves of The Stade, next to Folkestone harbour.

The Waiting Miner

According to local historian, Lorraine Sencicle, after coal had been found across the channel in Calais, it was assumed coal could also be found in Dover. A number of collieries sprang up after this was proved correct.

However, during this period, England was experiencing a post-war depression. General strikes sprung up in 1926 as wages were cut to mitigate the economic downturn and miners increasingly faced lay-offs and slim job prospects.

Coal mines in Kent were looking for experienced workers who could make their own way to Dover. Miners from South Yorkshire, Durham, Lancashire, Scotland and Wales walked to Dover in search of a job.

So now, in recognition of the Dover and Deal area being the first site of Kent's coal mines and in the memory of the coal miners who worked and died in the area, The Waiting Miner stands in Fowlmead Country Park, Deal.

The statue was moved to this site of a former colliery spoil tip after miner's families campaigned for it to be placed where it could better reflect Kent's mining history.

Pocahontas

As the daughter of Wahunsenacawh, leader of the Powhatan, Pocahontas was captured by the colonists of Jamestown during the First Anglo-Powhatan War of 1609. She was held captive with them for a year and was convinced to convert to Christianity, taking on the name Rebecca after her baptism.

After her baptism, she revealed her birth name was Matoaka, which her family had hidden from colonialists in the superstitious hope it would protect her. She married a tobacco planter called John Rolfe in 1614 in her late teens and had a son with him a year later.

In 1616, her husband brought her to London where he used Pocahontas as an example of a "civilized savage" in order to encourage investment into the Jamestown settlement. She became a celebrity and was treated to luxury, at one point attending a masque at Whitehall Palace.

In 1617, Pocahontas died after becoming ill in Gravesend and was buried in St George's Church, Gravesend, where her statue stands today.

William Harvey

Born in Folkestone in 1578, William Harvey was the first physician to recognise the full circulation of the blood in the human body in 1616. It took 20 years for his theory to be accepted.

Another theory at the time asserted the digestive system provided blood which was absorbed by the body and the heart's function was to produce heat.

Because of his contributions to science - and marriage to the daughter of Queen Elizabeth I's physician - William became the 'physician extraordinary' to King James I in 1618.

A less well-known aspect of William's life is his involvement in witch trials. William had always encouraged his colleagues to ‘search and study out the secrets of nature by way of experiment’ and was sceptical of the idea of witches.

In one story, it is believed he exonerated a woman accused of witchcraft by pretending to be a wizard, sending her away to buy some ale then dissecting her pet toad to prove it was a regular amphibian and not her familiar.

King Æthelberht and Queen Bertha

Not far from Canterbury Cathedral, statues of a pagan King and christian Queen stand facing each other outside the gates of the King’s School.

King Æthelberht was the King of Wessex from 860 to 865 when Anglo-Saxons held control of England. Bertha, daughter of the King of Paris, was betrothed to him in her early teens and was allowed to continue practising christianity when she came to England.

When St Augustine was sent from Rome to convert the pagan Anglo-Saxons to christianity, it was thought Queen Bertha played a large role in convincing her husband to let him preach in Canterbury Cathedral. She also may have played a role in his conversion later on.

St Augustine's mission of conversion began in Kent and so the first steps of England becoming a christian country may well have started with Bertha and Æthelberht.

Thomas Waghorn

This statue is most famous in Chatham for usually having a cone on its head. But Waghorn's statue was actually installed on Railway Street, Chatham, in 1888 for his efforts in finding a shorter overland route from England to Egypt.

Waghorn made many trips between England and Egypt to deliver post after 1832. He claimed to have established a route which shortened a three month long, 11,000 mile journey to a 35-45 day, 6,000 mile journey.

His statue bears the inscription: "Thomas Waghorn - Lieutenant RN - Pioneer and founder of the overland route - Born at Chatham 1800 - Died January 7th 1850."

Another statue of Waghorn was installed in Suez Canal, Egypt in 1869 to honour his achievements but was destroyed during the the Suez Crisis.

To read more about one councillor's idea to set up a 'statue cemetary', click here.

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