10 Unsung Heroes Of History

Forever enshrined with the 2014 film The Imitation Game, Alan Turing's heroics in cracking Enigma, the seemingly unbreakable Nazi communications, was perhaps the single most significant victory of the second World War.

Alan Turing had a brilliant numerical noggin, graduating from King's College, Cambridge in 1934 studying mathematics. His near-unrivalled intellect landed him at Bletchley Park, with the role of attempting to break the seemingly unbeatable German Enigma encryption device.

Creating a machine of his own, Turing and his colleagues in Hut 8 successfully cracked Enigma, saving an estimated 14 million lives by doing so and greatly helping to win the war for the allies.

The Normandy landings of 6 June 1944 and the attack of Pearl Harbor shaped the fate of the west moving forward, and we're frequently reminded of such heroics, yet the exploits of a young, unassuming man in the heart of the English midlands are surely more substantial.

Moreover, Turing was gay in a time when homosexuality was viciously ostracised, and as such was given 'treatment' for his orientation. He would not see the recognition he deserved in his lifetime, taking his own life in 1954 at the age of 41.