I'd nominate Leonard Barden. Because he is a chess player no-one else will care, but he was a good player in his day (British Champion 1954), has turned down an honour (*BE but I don't know which), was responsible for the training of the young players who made England the world's second-strongest chess-playing nation in the 1980s (behind USSR) and has been writing an excellent article for the Graun for as long as anyone can remember.
He is also one of the few surviving players with a Morphy Number of 3, and it is because I once played him that I have a Morphy Number of 4.
He is also a damned good sort.