Philip Edwin Dean Hirst [commonly known as Philip Hirst] was born in Toxteth Park, Lancashire, England on 5 April 1911 and strudied at Liverpool Universioty School of Architecture from 1930 to 1935. He subsequently remained at the university as a srudio instructor in the School of Architecture. In 1936 he won the Rome Scholarship and from 1936 to 1939 studied at the British School in Rome where he made a study of Italian piazzas.
Following World War Two he moved to Iraq and worked as an architect and town planner for the Iraqi Government and Iraqi State Railways. He later worked in private practice in Iraq. He returned to England where he continued in private practice.
During his years in Iraq, Hirst was who was master of Fox Hounds for the Royal Hunt of Bagdad. He died in Tunbridge Wells, Kent in June 2000.
Jackson, Iain. ‘The architecture of the British Mandate in Iraq:nation-building and state creation.’ The Journal of Architecture vol. 21, no. 3, 2016 pp. 375-417
Pieri, Caecilia. ‘Modernity and its Posts in Constructing an Arab Capital: Baghdad's Urban Space and Architecture’. Middle East Studies Association Bulletin
vol. 42, nos. 1/2, Summer/Winter 2008, pp. 32-39
Thirties: British Art and Design before the War. London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979 [Catalogue of an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London, 25 October-13 January 1979]