History hero

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

American jazz singer Helen Forrest performing with trumpeter Harry James (1916-1983), c1945. (Photo by Metronome/Getty Images)

History heroDame Vera Lynn chooses Helen Forrest (1917–99). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Frank Gillard pictured during a 1944 rehearsal for battle reporting

History heroChris Mason chooses Frank Gillard (1908–98). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Harold Wilson in 1971, after his first period as prime minister. He would take power again in 1974. (Photo by Getty Images)

History heroJason Watkins chooses Harold Wilson (1916–95). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Rosa Parks (right) riding on a bus following the Supremacial segregation on Montgomery's public transit system. (Photo by Don Cravens/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images)

History heroGabby Logan chooses Rosa Parks (1913–2005). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Sylvia Pankhurst is taken into custody

History heroEmma Barnett chooses Sylvia Pankhurst (1882–1960). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Prime Minister Harold Macmillan at Admiralty House, London

History heroMichael Heseltine chooses Harold Macmillan (1894–1986). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Oskar Schindler, who prevented hundreds of Jews from being murdered in the Holocaust

History heroSimon Reeve chooses Oskar Schindler (1908–74). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A contemporary portrait of scientist Ada Lovelace

History heroKonnie Huq chooses Ada Lovelace (1815–52)

British journalist Tom Wintringham (1898–1949), the candidate for the Christian Socialist Commonwealth Party. (Photo by Haywood Magee/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

History heroPeter Tatchell chooses Tom Wintringham (1898–1949). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

History heroJulia Bradbury chooses Amelia Earhart (1897–1937). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Native American leader Sitting Bull

History heroSteven Knight chooses Sitting Bull (1831–90). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

My history heroTracy Austin chooses Arthur Ashe. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Fridtjof Nansen, taken after his daring expedition across Greenland. (Image by Alamy)

My history heroPaul Rose chooses Fridtjof Nansen

Wilfred Thesiger in Oman, c1946. "He was able to cope without sleep, and aI don't think he knew pain," says Frank Gardner. (Image by Bridgeman)

My history hero: Frank Gardner chooses Wilfred Thesiger. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A c1830 portrait of the scandalous but sublimely talented Lorenzo da Ponte. (Photo by Alamy)

My history hero: Katie Derham chooses Lorenzo Da Ponte. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British Artist Ivon Hitchens. (Image by Bridgeman)

My history hero: Chris Packham chooses Ivon Hitchens. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Endurance, the ship of Ernest Shackleton

My history hero: Ernest Shackleton (d1922). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Herbert Hasler, one of the Cockelshell heroes, seen here at work on his sloop at the Don Fuller boatyard, Bosham, Sussex. 1st March 1966. (Image by Getty)

My history hero: Paddy Ashdown chooses ‘Blondie’ Hasler. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The "brilliant" Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse in 1935. (Getty Images)

My history hero: Walt Disney (1901-66). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Politician and novelist Benjamin Disraeli was twice prime minister, and extended suffrage by introducing the 1867 Reform Act. (Photo by Jabez Hughes/Getty Images)

The LibraryMy history hero: Jacob Rees-Mogg chooses Benjamin Disraeli

Composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor visited the US on several occasions, where he was held in such high regard that he was dubbed the 'African Mahler'. (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)

My history hero: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Singer Paul Robeson rehearses at a piano in 1958. He had a unifying outlook, observing that "neither suffering nor compassion is confined to one face." (Photo by Keystone Features/Getty Images)

My history hero: Paul Robeson (1898–1976). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

William Beveridge was determined to fight the five "giant evils" of "want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness." (Photo by Hans Wild/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

My history hero: William Beverage (1879–1963). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Jazz trumpeter and composer Miles Davis, shown here in 1969, was central to the story of jazz. (Photo by Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images)

My history hero: Miles Davis (1926–91). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Elizabeth I, shown in a portrait commemorating victory over the Armada

My history hero: Elizabeth I (1533-1603). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Welsh Labour politician Aneurin Bevan making a speech on the freedom of the press at a meeting of the National Council of Civil Liberties at Central Hall, Westminster, London, in 1942. (Photo by Kurt Hutton/Picture Post/Getty Images)

My history heroTanni Grey-Thompson chooses Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

English philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts. (Photo by Hulton-Deutsch/Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images)

My history hero: Angela Burdett-Coutts. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

My history hero: Aled Jones chooses Freddie Mercury (1946–91). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Designer duo, husband and wife Robin and Lucienne Day, 1955. The pair “were perhaps the greatest British man and wife design team there has ever been”, says Wayne Hemingway. (Photo by Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Stock Photo)

My history hero: Robin Day (1915–2010) and Lucienne Day (1917–2010). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Charlie Chaplin, in a still from his 1936 film 'Modern Times’. (Photo by American Stock/Getty Images)

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