Unveiling their Stories – Famous People in WW2

Discover the stories of famous people in WW2 who heeded the call to serve but made the ultimate sacrifice during their military service.

This blog will mostly focus on the Commonwealth’s contribution to the Second World War and the famous faces from these nations that fought and fell on battlefields the world over.

Famous People WW2

How many people died in WW2?

Image: Bayeux War Cemetery, CWGC's largest war cemetery, still only holds a handful of the conflict's total war dead

The Second World War was the bloodiest conflict in history.

Estimates vary, but the total figure of people killed as a result of the conflict could be as high as 85 to 100 million.

According to the United States National WW2 Museum, over 15,000,000 servicemen were killed in combat during the war.

Over 50,000,000 civilians are thought to have died as a consequence of the Second World War, either through collateral damage, bombing raids, sickness, starvation or, sadly, genocide.

The National WW2 Museum gives the following rough summary of total deaths:

• Battle Deaths - 15,000,000
• Battle Wounded - 25,000,000
• Civilian Deaths - 45,000,000

According to our WW2 records, Commonwealth War Graves commemorate some 667,000 Second World War casualties. 

For the Western Allies of the British Empire and the United States, combat deaths and civilian casualties are far smaller than those of, say, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. 

Likewise, the price paid by civilians in countries like the Soviet Union, China or Poland, and lest we forget Japan and Germany, far outweighs that experienced on the Home Front by Britain, as difficult and deadly as the Blitz was.

There are close to 350,000 WW2 war graves maintained by Commonwealth War Graves around the world.

Lying alongside their comrades in arms in war cemeteries the world over, or commemorated on name panels of moving war memorials, are famous WW2 casualties.

Famous people who fought in WW2

Famous Soldiers from WW2

Celebrities and cultural figures did their bit for the war effort during World War Two.

Image: Lieutenant Richard Todd at the battle school in Reykjavik, 1942 (The Pegasus Project) 

Often, this took the form of morale-raising trips or entertainment for the troops – think Dame Vera Lynn’s visits to Burma and so on. Many famous faces like actor Peter Sellers joined up but served in military entertainment squadrons, performing for the forces stationed at home and overseas. 

But plenty of other famous folk served in the armed forces in combat and logistical capacities, enlisting in the army, air force, or navy to do their bit.  

Unfortunately, many paid the ultimate price for their military service.

Some of those who survived were Normandy veterans Richard Todd and David Niven. Two of the most famous actors of their age, Todd and Niven each served in the airborne and in military intelligence respectively. 

Todd even went on to star in The Longest Day: a dramatic retelling of the Normandy Landings of which he had been a part of the airborne contingent.

Likewise, the actor Dirk Bogarde, who had been on the ground at Operation Market Garden, starred in the 1977 classic A Bridge Too Far.
Bogarde, Todd, and Niven survived the war. Many of their fellow celebrities did not. 

Stars of stage, screen, musicians, poets, painters, sportsman and more leading cultural figures on the early 20th century fought and fell alongside their comrades in arms around the globe.

But the famous soldiers of WW2 aren’t just the celebrities who fought. The Airmen, sailors, and soldiers who persecuted the war earned fame, and in some cases, infamy, for their conduct during the war, becoming celebrities themselves. 

Famous casualties of World War Two

Hedley Verity

Image: Hedley Verity (Wikimedia Commons)

The softly-spoken Hedley Verity was one of Britain’s greatest cricketers. As a slow left-arm bowler, Hedley remains one of the greatest ever, taking 1,956 First Class wickets at a rate of 14.9.

Hedley’s greatest individual international performance came against Australia at Lord’s in 1934. He took 14 wickets in a single day, setting a new global record.

In the Second World War, Hedley was Captain of B Company, 1st Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment (The Green Howards).

Hedley was sadly killed in combat at Sicily during Operation Husky in the summer of 1943, struck in the chest by a sniper’s bullet as his men crossed a Sicilian cornfield. He is buried in Caserta War Cemetery.

Walter Leigh

Walter Leigh was amongst Britain’s leading composers at the time of the Second World War.

His most famous piece is Concertino for harpsichord and string orchestra, while other works include Agincourt and the Frogs of Aristophanes.

Walter was also one of the leading exponents of creating music and soundtracks for documentaries. One of his best-known and earliest documentary works was the score for The Song of Ceylon, a film investigating the Sri Lankan tea industry.

According to his BBC obituary, Walter was the “first British composer to undertake a complete study of the many problems relating to the soundtrack in the production of films.”

In the Second World War, Walter enlisted in the British Army, serving as a trooper with the Royal Armoured Corps, 4th Queen’s Own Hussars.

Walter saw combat in North Africa. He was killed in action near Tobruk, Libya in 1942, shortly before his 37th birthday.

Walter was survived by his wife Marion and three children Julian, Veronica, and Andrew.

Famous Pilots of WW2

Guy Gibson VC

Image: Dambuster and VC winner Guy Gibson (copyright unknown)

Along with Sir Leonard Cheshire and Sir Douglas Bader, Wing Commander Guy Gibson is probably the most famous WW2 British pilot.

As commander of The Dambusters, Guy had a short but shining military aviation career, making him one of the most famous people of WW2, at least in the UK.

From the start, Guy combined a natural flying ability with incredible bravery and soon began flying many sorties and winning many medals.  Sir Arthur Harris, Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command, described Gibson as his “most full-out fighting pilot”.

In March 1943, Guy was selected to train and lead 617 Squadron, aka the Dambusters. 617 Squadron's goal was to destroy three major dams deep within Germany under Operation Chastise.

Despite the intense risk, The Dambusters managed to destroy two of their three targets and massively damage the third. For his leadership and valour during Operation Chastise, Guy was awarded a Victoria Cross.

Sadly, Guy did not survive the war. He and navigator Squadron Leader James Warwick were killed in a plane crash near Steenberegen, Netherlands on 19 December 1944.

Adrian Warburton DSO* DFC**

Image: Adrian Warburton 

Known as “Warby” to his friends, Adrian Warburton was necessarily well known during his military service but he has come to be recognised as “the absolute king of aerial photography” post-war.

Adrian was initially a poor flyer but after transferring to Malta, he suddenly found a new sense of serenity and skill in the cockpit. In Malta, Adrian blossomed into a supreme aerial photoreconnaissance pilot, combining sheer ability with coolness and courage under fire.

Adrian was exceptionally close to his targets, sometimes flying so low he could pick out individual ships' names when scouting naval targets. 

Throughout his career, Adrian was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with 2 bars, the Distinguished Service Order and a US Distinguished Flying Cross for his mixture of skill and courage.

Thanks to the quality of the information he acquired, his skill in the air, and his knowledge of aerial recon, Warby was given command of four photo recon squadrons in mid-1943. By 1944, he had been appointed RAF Liaison Officer to the US 8th Army Air Force but still flew.

On the morning of 12 April, Adrian took off from the UK on a flight alongside another aircraft for missions over Germany. The two planes were to separate, carry out their objectives, and rendezvous later at a Sicilian airfield. Warby never arrived.

Adrian was officially missing until 2002 when his remains were discovered in a field in Bavaria near the village of Egling an der Parr, around 30 miles west of Munich. Adrian was still in his downed craft’s cockpit. Evidence suggests he had been shot down.

Adrian Warburton is now buried in Durnbach War Cemetery. 

Military leaders of World War 2

famous ww2 Civilian war Leaders

Image: Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelet and Joseph Stalin, "The Big Three" at the Yalta Conference, February 1945 (IWM (TR 2828))

The military leaders of World War Two are amongst the most famous Second World War personnel. After all, these were the men who led the fighting forces that persecuted the war on air, land, and sea.

The key civilian war leaders of World War Two’s major powers were:

• Sir Neville Chamberlain – British Empire
• Sir Winston Churchill – British Empire
• Joseph Stalin – Soviet Union
• Franklin D. Roosevelt – USA
• Harry S. Truman – USA
• Charles de Gaulle - Free France
• Adolf Hitler – Nazi Germany
• Benito Mussolini – Fascist Italy
• Emperor Hirohito – Imperial Japan
• Hideki Tojo – Imperial Japan

These represent the dictators, heads of state, or prime ministers of the major Axis and Allied powers of the Second World War. 

Thousands of books and millions of words have been written about them as they are some of the most well-known figures in history, not just some of the most famous people of WW2.

That is not to say the leaders of the Dominions of the British Empire and other Allied nations did not play incredibly vital roles during the conflict. Diplomatic relations were just as important as military cooperation for Allied victory.

Image: The 1944 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference, London (left to right): Mackenzie King, Canada, Field Marshal Jan Smuts, South Africa, Sir Winston Churchill, United Kingdom, Peter Fraser, New Zealand, John Curtin, Australia (Wikimedia Commons) 

Canada’s wartime Prime Minister was William Lyon Mackenzie King. His New Zealand counterpart was Prime Minister Peter Fraser. 

Australia had a bit of a turbulent time when it came to wartime Prime Ministers with five serving in the conflict: Robert Menzies, Arthur Fadden, John Curtin, Francis Ford, and Ben Chiefly.

South Africa was led by Field Marshal Jan Smutz. Smutz was an interesting character. He had fought against the British Empire in the Boer War but emerged to become an important civilian leader in the post-war climate. 

He had served with distinction in the First World War. His report on military aviation was a vital factor in the formation of the RAF in April 1918. In World War Two, Smutz was both a South African Prime Minister and a Field Marshal of the British Army. He was also a key aide to Churchill.

Famous Military Leaders of WW2

Image: Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery (IWM (TR 2652))

But the military leaders of course must include the generals and commanders of World War Two’s air, land, and sea forces.

For Britain, Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery is amongst the most famous World War Two people, comparable with Churchill in his importance and fame.

Montgomery led the victory at El Alamein in November 1942, replacing another famed British general Claude Auchinleck, but he is not without controversy. 

Monty, as he was known, was a notoriously prickly character and difficult to deal with.

He has also gained notoriety as the brains behind Operation Market Garden. For many, the failure at Arnhem rests on Monty’s shoulders. But Montgomery was also the mastermind behind Operation Overlord and D-Day, and the successful 1945 crossing of the Rhine Operation Varsity.

Monty was a complex figure but is probably the most famous British soldier of WW2.

Other famous British soldiers of the war include Field Marshall William “Bill” Slim. Slim completely changed the fortunes of the British Army in Burma, working in tandem with Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia Command Lord Louis Mountbatten.

In terms of airmen, Air Marshall Sir Arthur Harris, despite not being the most senior British air commander, is arguably the most famous. Bomber Command, its role in the war, and its leader remain controversial. 

Supreme Commander in Chief Allied Expeditionary Force and former US President Dwight D. Eisenhower is possibly the best-known American soldier of WW2. 

Figures like Generals Patton and Bradley rank as some of the most famous American commanders of the war, alongside the likes of Admiral Chester A. Nimitz, after who the US aircraft carrier class is named, and US Army Air Force General Jimmy Doolittle of the audacious Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in April 1942.

Civilians and unsung figures

Outside of the political and military leadership and famous soldiers of World War Two, civilian figures are also some of the conflict’s most well-known figures.

More recently, nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer, overseer of the Manhattan Project which birthed the atomic bomb, is amongst the most famous civilian figures of the war.

In 2023, Christopher Nolan’s eponymous biopic, starring Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer, brought the scientist further into the public imagination.

Hollywood films help increase the profile of some who flew under the radar during wartime, turning them into Second World War famous figures.

Take computer pioneer Alan Turing. His work on ULTRA, computing and codebreaking alongside the others at Bletchley Park was kept secret for decades, but when it was revealed how the Enigma Code was broken his fame grew (although he was significant in computing circles).

Turing became even more well-known to wider audiences with the release of the Benedict Cumberbatch-starring The Imitation Game covering Turing’s time at Bletchley. 

And for some, their first point of contact with the horrors of the holocaust was the Diary of Anne Frank. The teenage girls' experiences, documented in her diary, are some of the most tragic pieces of Second World War literature. Anne remains one of the most famous of all non-combatants associated with the Second World War.

Leslie Howard

Image: Leslie Howard (Wikimedia Commons)

As a civilian casualty, Leslie Howard is not commemorated by Commonwealth War Graves. However, he was one of the most famous people to be killed during the Second World War.

Leslie was among the most celebrated actors of his day. He was best known to audiences for his classic portrayal of Ashley Wilkes in the 1939 epic Gone with the Wind. He was also twice nominated for an Academy Awarded for his performances in Berkley Square and Pygmalion.

In May 1943, Leslie had made several trips to neutral Portugal and Spain to talk up the British war effort there. Earlier in the war, the flight path from Lisbon-Whitchurch was considered part of an active warzone. However, towards the end of 1942, the Luftwaffe had begun to consider the region a “highly sensitive area”.

Howard was returning to Britain from Portugal aboard BOAC Flight 777 on June 1, 1943. As it were flying over the Bay of Biscay, the airliner was attacked by a swarm of German fighters. 

German reports say the fighters shot down Flight 777, with Leslie aboard, some 500 miles south of Bordeaux. 13 passengers and 4 crew were lost, including Leslie Howard. 

Various theories have been given as to why the civilian aircraft was attacked:

• Donald E. Wilkes suggested the flight had been targeted because of Leslie Howard’s role as a propaganda figure rallying support for the British
• Some suggest Leslie could have been acting as a British spy on his trips to Spain and Portugal
• Other theories suggest the squadron believed Winston Churchill was aboard so attacked to assassinate Britain’s wartime leader

The shooting down of Flight 777 was met with shock and condemnation around the world. Public grief was widespread with Leslie was seen as a martyr figure.

Interestingly, Leslie Howard’s death was reported in the same issue of The Times that published the death notice of Major William Martin, i.e., “The Man who Never Was” and the centre of Operation Mincemeat.

Famous Women of WW2

At home and abroad, on the home front and battlefields, behind enemy lines or on land, air, or sea, women the world over made an incredible contribution to World War Two.

Frontline combat was overall the preserve of men, particularly with the Western Allies, but many women put themselves into harm’s way, taking up dangerous roles and working to support the war effort.

Famously, women took up important manufacturing and production work in the absence of male factory workers. Working in munitions, weapon and vehicle factories could prove dangerous.

Image: Kate Ter Horst (Wikimedia Commons)

Of course, frontline nursing services naturally put women in perilous positions. Transport was also dangerous. Over 70 nursing and female Royal Navy personnel were killed in the sinking of the Khedive Ismail by Japanese torpedoes in February 1944, for example. 

Nursing and caring for soldiers also drew in civilians at home and abroad. For example, Dutch housewife Kate der Host became famous as the “Angel of Arnhem” for tending to dying and wounded soldiers during the Battle of Arnhem.

Women were also involved in the Air Transport Auxiliary, piloting aircraft to and from factories, depots, workshops, and frontline bases. These planes were often unarmed, making the female pilots vulnerable to enemy aircraft.

Amongst these were the 15 female Special Operations Executive (SOE) operatives dropped behind enemy lines to support espionage and resistance activities in Europe as part of Churchill’s wish to “set Europe aflame”.

The dangers faced by such operatives were immense. Acting as secret agents, radio operatives, couriers and liaisons, the SOE operatives were essentially spies.

That meant if they were captured, something they risked every day while on operations, they could expect summary execution or death in a concentration camp.

Violette Szabo

Image: Violette Szabo (public domain)

Violette’s story has been immortalised in the 1957 film Carve Her Name with Pride and is one that shows the almost superhuman courage of SOE operatives.

Violette had previously joined the Women’s Land Army on the outbreak of WW2 and in 1941 she volunteered with the Auxiliary Territorial Services (ATS). 

As a fluent French speaker via her French mother, Violette was recruited into the SOE’s “F” Section in 1942. ‘F’ Section dealt specifically with France, so Violette was sent on her first mission to Rouen to link up with the French Resistance in April 1944.

On her second mission, Violette was parachuted into southern France, the day after D-Day, to help set up a new intelligence network. Three days later, accompanying resistance leader ‘Anastasie’, Violette’s car was stopped at a Nazi roadblock.

A gun battle ensued into which Anastasie was able to escape but Violette was taken prisoner. Brutally interrogated in a Parisian prison before being deported to Germany.

Violette was executed at Ravensbrück Concentration Camp in early 1945. For her bravery, Violette was posthumously awarded the UK’s highest civilian honour, the George Cross, in January 1947.

Famous Artists of WW2

For as long as humanity has been waging war, it has been capturing it in war art.

Whether literature, poetry, sculpture, music, painting or any artistic medium, humans have been trying to capture the wide variety of emotions warfare entails in artistic ways.

But even the most artistic of souls were called up or volunteered during the Second World War. 

The war was chronicled from the very start by photographers, painters, poets and writers. Those on active service channelled their experiences into their work, resulting in some of the most iconic pieces of war art to this day.

Others were employed directly by the government to ensure the war was properly documented. For example, the War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC) was established by Sir Kenneth Clark to appoint official artists to record the war through an artistic lens.

Eric Ravilious 

Eric Ravilious was one of the 400 artists appointed as an official WAAC war artist.

Eric seemed an ideal choice. In 1937, his work had been selected for an “Artists Against Fascism” in London. At the outbreak of the war, Eric was already an established artist. He had won a scholarship to study art at the Royal College of Art and had already held several solo exhibitions.

As war artists were commissioned into a branch of the armed forces, Eric was assigned to the Royal Navy. He was first stationed at Chatham, illuminating the work of navy personnel, ships and boats, and scenes of naval life.

Image: HMS Glorious in the Arctic, Eric Ravilious (IWM Art.IWM ART LD 283)

He also travelled on expeditions with the Royal Navy, such as heading to Norway in 1940 where he painted scenes of HMS Ark Royal and Glorious in action.

With his wife ill, Eric requested to be posted nearer to home. He began painting RAF aircraft and bases.

On 28 August 1942, Eric flew to Iceland to capture RAF activity there. He was invited to join a search and rescue mission to recover a missing aircraft shortly after his arrival. The plane that Eric was on soon went missing itself. 

Eric’s body was never recovered, and he is commemorated on the Chatham Memorial.

Keith Douglas

Image: War poet Keith Douglas

Captain Keith Douglas of the Royal Armoured Corps, 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry, is considered by some to be the only British war poet of the Second World War to truly carry on the tradition set by the Great War’s war poets.

Through his poetry, Keith presented a forensic realism based on his own wartime experiences. The details of Keith’s words are almost callous in its stark depiction of military campaigning and battles.

From Alamein to Zem Zem, Keith’s memoir, is considered one of the most expressive descriptions of the North African campaign too, proving he could write prose just as well as he could verse.

His memoir, From Alamein to Zem Zem, is one of the most expressive descriptions of the North Africa campaign. But it’s through his poetry that Douglas offered an almost forensic vision of the grinding, brutal warfare that characterised the Second World War.

For example, Keith’s poem Vergissmeinnicht (Forget-me-not) plainly describes the ruined body of a German tanker: “How on his skin the swart flies move; the dust upon the paper eye and the burst stomach like a cave.”

It’s this staunch refusal to pull any punches that separated Keith from his contemporaries.

Keith fought and fell in the Normandy campaign, just three days after D-Day. Leaving his tank to undertake a personnel reconnaissance while pinned on high ground around Tilly-sur-Selles, Normandy, Douglas was struck and killed by mortar fire.

Initially buried close to where he had died, Douglas was eventually moved to the Tilly-sur-Selles Cemetery where he remains to this day.

Why it’s important to remember the Fallen of WW2

While we can focus on famous WW2 figures as we have in this blog, it’s important we remember all the fallen of the Second World Wars.

Commemoration is as much about respect and thanksgiving as it is about remembrance. The 667,000 or so Commonwealth personnel who fought and fell on land, air, and sea, put their life on the line for their nations and loved ones. They paid the ultimate price for such devotion.

Remembering the sacrifices is to remember the role they played in shaping the liberties and freedoms we enjoy in a post-Second World War world.

So, while the famous WW2 soldiers and figures grab the headlines, we can never forget the rest of the 667,000 who lost their lives in World War Two.

Help us Honour Their Memory

Help us keep the memories of Second World War service personnel, famous or not, alive.

Nearly everyone in the UK is related to someone who served in the Armed Forces. Likewise, the Commonwealth saw soldiers, sailors and airmen serve in huge numbers. Each one has a story to tell.

From the famous faces of World War Two to the unremembered soldiers, you can share their stories on For Evermore: Stories of the Fallen.

For Evermore is our online stories archive where you can upload and share the stories of Second World War servicemen so their memories are kept alive permanently. 

Got a story to tell? Share it today on For Evermore.