OLIVE HIRST

Olive Hirst, the first woman to run a London advertising agency, died on February 26 aged 81. She was born on June 20, 1912. OLIVE HIRST was a trail - blazer for women in advertis - ing . She was the first woman fellow of the Institute of Practi - tioners in Advertising (IPA), the first woman to be elected to the IPA's Council and the first

woman managing director of a British advertising agency — Sells, established in 1869. Educated at the Abbey School, Mill Hill, Olive Mirzi Hirst first went to work at the age of 18, joining the overseas department of Sells in 1931 as secretary to H. G. Wood. Per - haps fortunately for her, he went on to be chairman and managing director of the agency five years later. She served as his right hand in

running both the agency and its major accounts, including Brylcreem, Nufix, Timothy Whites and Eugene. At vari - ous times she worked in all the agency's departments, except the studio, and set up its film and screen advertising depart - ment from scratch. During the war, when Sells was appointed the contractor, she was also responsible for raising the revenue of the Post Office by selling advertising space in stamp books. She was both personally and profes - sionally involved in the Catho - lic Information " Centre's advertising. Olive Hirst joined the board of Sells in January 1950 and, when H. G. Wood died nine months later, she was unani - mously voted managing direc - tor . An unfortunate by - product was that pressure of business and her new respon - sibilities prevented her from adding another first for women—the chairmanship of the Publicity Club of London (she had been elected its first woman vice-chairman in 1950). She had served as a council member and secretary to the finance committee since 1946 and chaired its member - ship committee, 1946-51 , d ur - ing which time more than 900 new members joined. A conso - lation was the award of the prestigious...