Only an exceptionally well-informed reader will recognize the name of F. W. Hirst, whose stalwart advocacy of personal freedom, free trade, and peace during the first half of the twentieth century, and especially during the First World War and its aftermath, surely earns him an honored place in the pantheon of individual liberty.

Today let us celebrate the life of Francis Wrigley Hirst (“Frank” to his family), who was born on June 10, 1873, at Dalton Lodge, two miles east of Huddersfield in the West Riding of Yorkshire. After a long and fruitful life, he died at Singleton in Sussex on February 22, 1953.

The weekly periodical Truth described him as “one of the greatest libertarians of all time” for his work as an apostle of civil liberty and personal freedom. A book of reminiscences by his family and friends appeared in 1958, in which his lifelong friend and brother-in-law, J. E. Allen, wrote that he had a “genius for friendship” and the historian G. P. Gooch declared, “I have never known a man whose character and convictions underwent less change with advancing years.”

Hirst was a prolific writer, skillful biographer, and scholarly exponent of basic principles, who devoted his life to the cause of individual liberty when at times it must have seemed that collectivism had triumphed. It is therefore appropriate that today we salute Francis Wrigley Hirst as a valiant defender of the Cobdenite tradition of peace and free trade.

You can read my account of his life here.