She was the first women to be appointed a managing director of an advertising agency in Britain when she was got to that position with Sells in September 1950.
She was the first female to be voted vice-chairman of the Publicity Club of London in the same year, and the first woman to be made a fellow of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.
[2][4] Hirst aided Wood in a major way to operate Sells and accounts such as Brylcreem and Timothy Whites.
[2][4] Throughout the Second World War, she was given the responsibility of raising money for the Post Office by selling space for advertising in stamp books.
[2] That same year, Hirst was made the first female to be voted the vice-chairman of the Publicity Club of London after a four-year spell on the council and as secretary to the finance committee (of which she chaired between 1946 and 1951, when more than 900 people became members).
[4] A requiem mass was held for Hirst at House Chapel in Westminster's Mount Street on the morning of 7 March 1994.
[3] A black and white film negative of Hirst taken by Baron Studios in November 1964 has been held in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London since 1999.