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Backroom boy

Meaning

One who works in anonymity in an organization while others take on more public roles.

Origin

First used to describe the anonymous technicians and scientists who worked behind the scenes in the UK during World War Two. Lord Beaverbrook coined it in a speech in March 1941:

"Now who is responsible for this work of development on which so much depends? To whom must the praise be given? To the boys in the back rooms. They do not sit in the limelight. But they are the men who do all the work. Many of them are Civil Servants."

Note that a related word - boffin, also emerged around the same time:

The (London) Times, Sept.1945 - "A band of scientific men who performed their wartime wonders at Malvern and apparently called themselves 'the boffins'."