When Octavia Wilberforce was born in the quiet market town of Petworth in the late 1800s, the idea of a woman becoming a doctor was just shy of scandalous. As a well-brought-up débutante, she was meant to marry someone titled, learn how to pour tea properly, and fade politely into upper-class domestic life.
But Octavia had other plans. A life of embroidery and polite conversation didn’t quite cut it. She decided she’d rather “be of use to the community,” which, in her case, meant medicine. So, she became one of Brighton’s first female GPs. Her family was horrified. They gave her a choice: give up the absurd dream of becoming a ‘lady doctor’ or give up her inheritance.
Octavia didn’t hesitate. She broke off her engagement, ignored her family’s dismay, and enrolled at the London School of Medicine for Women in 1913. She’d study for the next seven years, and graduate in 1920. At the time only 3% of qualified doctors were female.
A few years before in 1913, she and Elizabeth Robins, an American actress, writer, and fierce campaigner for women’s rights whom she’d met in 1909, opened a retreat in Henfield for suffragettes recovering from prison and the brutal practice of force-feeding. It would seem an easy leap to assume after seeing how the women had been treated, and the need for a good knowledge of medicine that Octavia could see the positive impact having a female GP would give.
In 1923 Octavia and Elizabeth set up their own practice, and home, at 24 Montpelier Crescent, which now sports a blue plaque in their honour. The two women worked closely with Dr Louisa Martindale, one of the earliest female GPs in Brighton with the aim to create specialist health services for women – something we’re still struggling to find funding for one hundred years later.
She treated patients at the progressive 50 bed New Sussex Hospital for Women and Children and founded a convalescent home for exhausted professional women (as an aside, could that be re-founded? I’m keen on one of those homes).
Octavia became friends with many of the Bloomsbury Set, and looked after Virginia Woolf. From notes taken at the time, it would appear during a social call by Octavia to Monk’s House in Rodmell in December 1940 tea turned into a consultation with Leonard Woolf, Virginia’s husband, who was concerned for his wife. This resulted in Octavia treating Virginia Woolf in the same way she did with her exhausted women.
On 27 March 1941 Leonard drove Virginia to see Octavia at her treatment rooms in Brighton, who advised complete rest. Sadly, the very next day Virginia Woolf died by suicide, something which understandably saddened Octavia greatly.
Octavia continued a long and illustrious career, retiring as a GP in 1954, but continuing to work at the refuge, supporting women right up to her death in 1963 aged 75 at the New Sussex Hospital for Women and Children that she’d been instrumental in establishing in Brighton.
Lisa Brace is an author of early 20th century fiction, based on incredible women and their endeavours. Her latest novel, The Fastest Girl on Earth, is out June 5th but can be pre-ordered here.
Sadly, we have not been able to source any photos of Octavia that we could share.
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