Jón Sigurðsson

Jon Sigurdsson (1811-1879) is our national hero number One.
Our Independence day is his birthday June 17th.
He was the leader of the 19th century Icelandic independence movement and is often referred to as President ("Jón forseti") by Icelanders. The main reason for this is that since 1851 he served as President of the Copenhagen Department of Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag (the Icelandic Literature Society). He was also the president of Althing several times, for the first time in 1849.
Most of this is from this website which is a pretty good and short biography of his life - yes, in English of cause.
You can also Google Austurvollur where this statue by Einar Jónsson is on a very high pedestal.

His house in Copenhagen, Jónshús, has been the property of the Icelandic government since 1967. When I studied at The Danish Film School I often vent there to meet other Icelandic students.