Octavia Wilberforce was an English physician who made a medical career despite opposition from her parents, with support from Elizabeth Robins. She was in general practice in Brighton, and ran a women's shelter near Henfield. She treated Virginia Woolf's mental illness, near the end of Woolf's life. She was also friends with multiple members of the Bloomsbury Group
Life
Octavia Margaret Wilberforce was the daughter and eighth child of Reginald Garton Wilberforce, son of Samuel Wilberforce, and his wife, Anna Maria Denman, daughter of Richard Denman; her great-grandfather was Thomas Denman, 1st Baron Denman and her paternal great-grandfather was William Wilberforce. She was born at Lavington House, Petworth, Sussex, and had little format education. She came out as a débutante in 1907. Wilberforce met Elizabeth Robins in 1909. In 1910 she took one of the family's maids to hospital, and met Louisa Martindale, an influential contact. Her parents planned for her to marry Charles Buxton, son of Sydney Buxton, 1st Earl Buxton, but the match was against her wishes, and she refused him. Instead, she entered the London School of Medicine for Women, in 1913, beginning seven years of study, qualifying in 1920. With her father refusing her financial support, and disinheriting her, Wilberforce relied mainly on Robins and Lord Buxton. On qualifying, she worked as house physician to Wilfred Harris at St Mary's Hospital, London. From 1923 Wilberforce was in general practice in Brighton, retiring in 1954. Robins met Leonard and Virginia Woolf in 1928, at the award ceremony for the Femina - Vie Heureuse Prize; she had known Leslie Stephen, Virginia's father. The Woolfs came to know Wilberforce, who lived with Robins in Brighton, on a social basis at this point. A social call for tea by Wilberforce to the Woolfs at Monk's House, Rodmell on 9 December 1940 became a consultation when Leonard Woolf involved Wilberforce in her professional capacity. Wilberforce subsequently advised Virginia, on the lines of her treatment of exhausted women at Backsettown, a farmhouse belonging to Robins. On 27 March 1941 Leonard drove Virginia to consult Wilberforce in Brighton; she advised complete rest, on the basis of a physical examination. Virginia Woolf committed suicide the following day. Octavia Wilberforce died on 19 December 1963.
