Global Freedom Fighters Remember Their Humble Leader, Linda Whetstone

In memory of a worldwide hero for the cause of liberty.

M y quiet evening last Thursday in Manhattan was rocked by the tragic news of the loss of Linda Whetstone, a lifetime freedom fighter whose last hours, fittingly, were spent advancing individual liberty and nurturing those who struggle for human dignity in the toughest places. She passed away on December 15 in full command of her deep intellect and gracious charms, just hours after participating in the Atlas Network‘s Freedom Forum and Liberty Dinner in Miami.

Linda was the daughter of Atlas Network founder Sir Antony Fisher. She served as a trustee and board chairman of the organization that Sir Antony launched to “litter the world with free-market think tanks.” Largely through Linda’s efforts, Atlas Network indeed has littered earth with some 500 research institutions and advocacy groups in 95 countries. They all promote private solutions to public problems. Linda’s tireless and far-flung travels and her talent for connecting Need A with Expert B helped Atlas Network achieve so much since it began in 1981.

I was fortunate enough to meet Linda in 1995, soon after joining Atlas Network as a senior fellow. I always looked forward to seeing Linda at our events, and those of allied groups, in America and overseas. Her whispered words of wisdom, swift wit, abundant warmth, and quintessentially English demeanor were qualities I cherished and very much will miss.

One early memory emerged from my very first Atlas Workshop, at Ashdown Park in East Sussex, U.K. A few of us went to Whetstone’s nearby home. It must have been built in the days of Henry VIII, or earlier. People back then tended to be shorter than they are today, not least because they lacked so much that most people now take for granted: far-lower infant mortality, far-better diets, One-A-Day vitamins, and gallons of calcium-rich milk.

So, the rather tall Linda and her very tall husband, Francis, lived in this abode that harkened back centuries. It was a cozy and unique residence, with the added advantage of the Whetstones’ walking from room to room, slightly hunched over beneath ceilings low enough to startle most modern humans. In every respectful sense, there was something endearingly Monty Python–esque about this eccentric detail of the Whetstones’ life in the British countryside.

That said, Linda Whetstone was taken very seriously indeed among libertarian leaders for her stewardship of so many organizations and movements. She was president of the Mont Pelerin Society, launched in 1947 by such luminaries as Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, and Ludwig von Mises. In 1959, a teenaged Whetstone traveled with her father to Oxford for her first MPS meeting and its tenth of 90 gatherings to date; Whetstone attended about 30 of them.

“Out of 31 previous presidents, 30 were men, 28 were doctors [Ph.D.s], and 27 were professors, and I have no quarrel with that. But I am none of those things, and I barely have a first degree, let alone a masters or Ph.D. So, what can my contribution be as president of this Society?” Whetstone asked with characteristic modesty last month at MPS’s meeting at Guatemala’s Francisco Marroquin University. “I believe we must use today’s technologies to share and develop new ideas among those who share our ideals and broad conceptions. To allow minds across the globe to spark off each other and contribute to the preservation and the vision of a free society.”

Beyond the ethereal worlds of political theory and individualist philosophy, Whetstone also was a woman of action.

“She worked with the Afghan Economic and Legal Studies Organization for 10 years, taking two motivated individuals and helping them build a body that ran an academy, radio station, and educational conferences for over 400 people focused on tolerance, freedom, and peace,” wrote Andy Mayer of the Institute of Economic Affairs, Great Britain’s leading free-market think tank, which her father launched in 1955. “When disaster struck this year, she worked tirelessly behind the scenes to get them out. Using her contacts and networks to create safe passages and new partnerships that have now resulted in over 3,000 lives saved.” Incredible: A nearly 80-year-old lady running her own large-scale, covert rescue operation.

Meanwhile, the abruptness of Whetstone’s unexpected departure makes her absence that much harder to fathom.

“This is still surreal,” said Rob Chatfield, president and CEO of the Free to Choose Network. “There’s no way I could sit next to Linda on Tuesday having lunch — soaking up her wit and wisdom — then send notes of condolence the very next day. I am thankful to have spent true quality time with Linda during the past month. Even with a global pandemic, she was able to travel the world and see friends from Mont Pelerin Society and Atlas Network.”

Encomia for this dear friend of liberty are pouring in, from every direction.

“It is indeed with great sadness that we mark the passing of Linda Whetstone,” said Jacob Rees-Mogg, MP, the Conservative leader of the British House of Commons, at the Palace of Westminster. “We pray for the repose of her soul.”

In a stirring on-air tribute, Fox News Channel host Steve Hilton said Sunday evening: “Over the course of the last few decades, she herself became one of the greatest and most indefatigable champions for liberty in the world. That’s because she focused on the places in the world where people need freedom the most.” Whetstone was Hilton’s mother-in-law.

“Linda Whetstone had accomplished so much, touched so many lives around the world, and encouraged so many causes and institutes to take on the battle,” recalled Edwin Feulner, founder and former president of the Heritage Foundation. “Her impact ripples across the globe and is visible in the work of the entrepreneur who can now sell his or her wares on the street without the harassment of corrupt officials, in the bustling private schools for the poor, in solitary academics who know they are part of a worldwide network and can share the greatest books and essays with students in seminars, thanks to her efforts to raise the funds, and share the resources, and spread the ideas of liberty.”

Whetstone’s collaboration with the Network for a Free Society helped deliver pro-liberty books and articles to those thirsting for these concepts worldwide. She steered some 150,000 copies of “Ideas for a Free Society” CD-ROMs into the hands of instructors, students, and fledgling leaders in 60 nations.

“It was not unusual to get reports of librarians and teachers in Tajikistan or Burundi or South Sudan who wrote to ask if they, too, could get access to these ideas,” Heritage Foundation scholars Bridgett Wagner and Anthony B. Kim explained. “And she delighted in sharing photos of student debates and training programs, and news of essay competitions and new institutions springing up as a result of this work.”

“When I had the immense honor of working with Linda, she was never without a handwritten list of names of people she was eager to discuss,” Cindy Cerquitella, executive director of America’s Future, remembered. “The student in Cote D’Ivoire teaching himself English to participate in trainings, the brilliant female lawyers in Kenya or India, the exciting young man in Nepal . . . the list was never ending, and Linda’s dedication to supporting every person working to advance liberty that she could never ended, either.”

“I am pleased to send my tribute to Linda Whetstone,” said Sally Pipes, president of San Francisco’s Pacific Research Institute. “I met her in the mid-1970s when her father was helping to get Canada’s Fraser Institute off the ground. Linda was a force of nature who will be sadly missed by free marketeers all over the world. Linda, thank you for all you have done on behalf of freedom.”

Across the Pacific, Parth Shah offered a mixture of emotions. “It’s really so sad!” said the founder and president of New Delhi’s Centre for Civil Society. “A Mont Pelerin Society meeting was in Goa in the early 2000s. On the first day, after dinner, some of us were standing on the beach, wondering what to do. It was rather dark, and no one had seen the beach during the day. We thought it too risky to venture. And there was Linda, walking down to the beach quietly. She took a dip and waved us all in. That’s really her — her spirit of adventure, undying energy after the long day, and camaraderie to bring us all together. That’s exactly what she is to the global freedom movement. By the way, she was the eldest person on that beach that night!”

If this leaden cloud has any silver lining, it might be that a vigorous woman of 79 did what she loved up to her last moment, was applauded on her final evening by hundreds of those who adored her, and departed the next morning, surrounded by sunshine and palm trees. As exits go, Whetstone’s was enviable.

In the 19th century, as the saying went, “The sun never sets on the British Empire.” In the 21st century, the sun never sets on the British anti-empire inspired by the lady who left us last week.

Freedom fighters in all 24 time zones join me in saying: “Rest in Peace, Linda Whetstone.”