Francis W. (Francis Wrigley) Hirst

Born in Yorkshire in 1873, Francis Wrigley Hirst studied at Clifton College and then Wadham College, Oxford, where he read Classics. He went on to build a career as a journalist, writer, and public intellectual with strong Liberal convictions.

Hirst is best known as editor of The Economist from 1907 to 1916. Across his books and essays, he wrote widely on economics, finance, war, and political history, with a lasting focus on free trade and individual liberty. His published work also included studies of figures such as Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, John Morley, and Gladstone.

Politically, he is often described as a classical liberal: committed to older Gladstonian Liberal ideas even as British politics was changing around him. He died in 1953, leaving behind a large body of writing that still attracts readers interested in liberal thought, economic debate, and early twentieth-century public life.