English social reformer and philanthropist Octavia Hill was BOTD in 1838. Born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire to a liberal middle-class family, her father was a social reformer, concerned with urban housing and ending child labour. She grew up in London and was educated largely at home, training as a glass-painter when she was 13 and working for art critic John Ruskin at the Dulwich Art Gallery and the National Gallery. With Ruskin’s financial support, she began managing housing for low-income families, introducing a housing management system to ensure the wellbeing of her tenants, promoting tenant associations and community activities. The success of her scheme attracted further financial backers, and by 1874 she managed 15 properties with over 3,000 tenants. In 1884, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners appointed her to manage their slum estates in South London, which she transformed into model properties. Hill also campaigned to save Hampstead Heath from development, coining the term “green belt” to describe protected rural areas surrounding London, and becoming a founding member of the National Trust. After a nervous collapse due to overwork, Hill’s family engaged a female secretary, Harriot Yorke, who became her lifelong companion and probable lover. She died in 1912, aged 73. Octavia Housing, a housing association in West London, currently manages over 5,000 properties, including some of the homes Hill first acquired.