IMGP0358. Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, Norfolk, on 29 January 1737. A complex and controversial character, he was a writer and political activist who was influential in both the American war of independence and the French Revolution.
An inscription on the plinth describes him as an “Englishman by birth; French citizen by decree; American by adoption.” The statue, by Charles Thomas Wheeler (1892-1974), was unveiled on 7 June 1964, gifted to the town of Thetford by the Thomas Paine Foundation in New York. The gilded bronze figure stands in a dramatic pose on top of a large plinth. In his outstretched right hand, he holds a quill pen, and in his left he holds a copy of Rights of Man (conspicuously upside down).
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