Antony Fisher - Gerald Frost

Antony Fisher's achievements throughout a varied and fascinating life were extraordinary. A successful entrepreneur from his twenties, and a decorated Battle of Britain fighter pilot in World War II, he later introduced chicken factory-farming to the UK (his second wife said, 'Antony did more to put a chicken in every man's pot than any king or politician,') and made a fortune in the process. But it was Fisher's concern with the liberty of the individual, crystallised by a meeting with the free-market thinker Friedrich Hayek (author of The Road to Serfdom) that redirected his life. As a result, Fisher poured his wealth into establishing the Institute of Economic Affairs, an independent economic think tank that later had enormous influence on public policy and the views of leading politicians, notably Margaret Thatcher. By the time Fisher died in 1988 (having lost his fortune in a turtle-farming venture, and only four weeks after being knighted), the IEA and its spin-offs around the world had played a crucial role in changing the direction of post-war politics forever.