History hero

Celebrities and popular figures choose their heroes from history. Browse these interviews to find out more about the people they chose…

Herbert 'Blondie' Hasler (left) pictured with Bill Sparks and Mary Lindell. It was "his ability to take ordinary men and give them the confidence and skills to do extraordinary things" that made him a hero, says Paddy Ashdown. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

My history hero: ‘Blondie’ Hasler (1914–87). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

My history hero: Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Richard Buckminster standing next to his draft of a house of the 21st century. (Ullstein picture via Getty Images)

My History Hero: Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A photograph of J Meade Falkner, c1915. He "had an extraordinary mind, the type you don't come across often," says Chris de Burgh of the novelist. (Public Domain)

My history hero: J Meade Falkner (1858-1932). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Landscape gardener, architect and writer John Loudon. "I just wish I had a fraction of his vision," says Mark Easton of one of the first people to champion green space in Britain's cities. (Public Domain)

My history hero: John Loudon (1783–1843). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Sue Townsend admires Charles Dickens (pictured c1960) for his battles against social injustice. (Photo by London Stereoscopic Company/Getty Images)

My history hero: Charles Dickens (1812-1870). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Ernest Bevin

My history hero: Ernest Bevin (1881-1951). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Frederick Courteney Selous (1851-1917). (Alamy)

My history hero: Frederick Courteney Selous (1851-1917). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Mary Beard, professor of classics at the University of Cambridge. (David Levenson/Getty Images)

My history hero: Sir Moses I Finley (1912–86). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, the leader of a network of French resistance agents during the Second World War. (Photo by AFP/Getty Images)

My history hero: Marie-Madeleine Fourcade (1909–89). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

American golfer Bobby Jones practising his swing on the roof of the Savoy Hotel in London. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

My history hero: Robert Tyre Jones (1902–71)

Clarence Harry Willcock MP, who refused to show his identity card to a policeman, 13 June 1951. (Photo by Walter Bellamy/Express/Getty Images)

My history hero: Clarence Willcock. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Kathleen Kenyon challenged biblical accounts with her pioneering work at the ancient city of Jericho. (Photo by Bettmann/contributor via Getty Images)

My history hero: Kathleen Kenyon (1906–78). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

My history hero: Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Field Marshal Harold Alexander, pictured in 1943. (Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images)

My history heroField Marshal Harold Alexander (1891–1969). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Sir Alec Clegg was the founder of Bretton Hall College (pictured), a West Yorkshire college specialising in arts and performance. (Photo by Memitina/Getty Images)

My history hero: Sir Alec Clegg (1909-86). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

My history hero: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

My history hero: Samuel Johnson (1709-84). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

My history hero: Douglas Bader (1910–82)

My history hero: Abba Kovner (1918–87). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

My history hero: Christopher Clayton Hutton (1893–1965). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The 19th-century political and social theorist Karl Marx; co-author (with Friedrich Engels) of The Communist Manifesto (1848). (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

My history hero: Karl Marx (1818–83). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

My history hero: Philip Pembroke Stephens (1903–37). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Anton Chekhov (1860–1904), pictured here c1895, is one of the most important figures in modern Russian literature. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

My history hero: Anton Chekhov (1860–1904). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The English writer and radio broadcaster JB Priestley at home on the Isle of Wight, 1933. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

My history hero: JB Priestley (1894–1984). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Broadcaster Simon Mayo

My history hero: William Trevelyan Richards. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Portrait of Captain William Bligh. (Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images)

My history hero: William Bligh (1754–1817). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of the English explorer Samuel Hearne. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

My history hero: Samuel Hearne (1745–92). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announces the outbreak of the Second World War in a BBC broadcast, 1939. (Fox Photos/Getty Images)

History hero: Joseph Chamberlain (1836–1914). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of William Hogarth, whom Simon Jones admires for possessing an extraordinary eye for pictorial detail and social nuance. (Photo by Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images)

My history hero: William Hogarth (1697–1764). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.