Octavia Hill

Housing reformer and founder of the National Trust, born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, EC England, UK. She worked among the London poor, and in 1864, supported by Ruskin, commenced her project to improve the homes of people in the slums - methods which were imitated in Europe and the USA. In 1869 she helped to found the Charity Organization Society. A leader of the open-space movement, she was a co-founder in 1895 of the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty.

Octavia Hill (3 December 1838 – 13 August 1912) was an English social reformer, particularly concerned with the welfare of the inhabitants of cities, specifically London, in the second half of the 19th century.

She was born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, and worked closely with her sister Miranda Hill (1836–1910), who founded the Kyrle Society.

Hill was a moving force behind the development of social housing, including Council housing, and she also campaigned for the availability of open spaces for poor people, which resulted in the establishment of the National Trust. at a party at George MacDonald's house John Ruskin formally started off a large dance with Octavia Hill as his dancing partner.

She was influenced very much by the important theologian, anglican priest and social reformer Frederick Denison Maurice. He published Life of Octavia Hill as Told in her Letters (London, 1913).

In 1859, she created the Army Cadet Force, an organisation to prepare youths for entrance to the army.

A monument to Octavia Hill is to be found at a Surrey beauty spot, on the summit of a hill called Hydon Ball (now owned by the National Trust).

There is an Octavia Hill Society, as well as an Octavia Hill Association, a small, Philadelphia-based real estate company devoted to providing affordable housing to low and middle-income city residents.