*John Hirst (businessman), Chief Executive of the UK Met Office
*John Hirst (criminal) (born 1950), convicted of manslaughter in 1980 and a campaigner for prisoners' rights
* John Hirst (historian) (1942–2016), emeritus professor of history at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
*John Hirst (rugby league) (born 1970), rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s for Wakefield Trinity
*Jack Hirst, rugby league footballer who played in the 1920s for England, and Featherstone Rovers
*John Malcolm Hirst (1921–1997), British aerobiologist, agricultural botanist, and mycologist
