Elizabeth Robins was born in the USA in 1862 but spent most of her life in England, much of it in Brighton. A renowned actress and author, she introduced Ibsen to the British stage and published many books. She became a strong advocate of women’s rights, and increasingly used her skills as a public speaker and writer on behalf of the cause. With theatrical friends, including Marion Lea, Robins went into theatre management and helped bring plays to the stage which showcased strong female characters and plots which were relevant to contemporary women.


After she left the stage, she joined the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Society (NUWSS) and later served on the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) Executive, though breaking with it over the organisation’s increasing militancy. Her suffrage play Votes for Women and her novel The Convert (both 1907) were hugely successful, helping to popularise the idea of votes for women. In 1908 she joined the Actresses’ Franchise League and the Women Writers Suffrage League, of which she later became President.

She met Octavia Wilberforce, who became one of Brighton’s pioneering woman doctors, in 1909. They lived together for 40 years. Firstly at ‘Backsettown’ Elizabeth’s country home near Henfield, which became a retreat for suffragettes recuperating under the Cat and Mouse Act, and later a convalescent home for professional women. (A commemorative plaque was placed there in 1960.) Later they lived for many years at 24 Montpelier Crescent, Seven Dials, a house acquired by Dr Wilberforce in 1923 to set up her own surgery.
Octavia, Elizabeth and others helped develop and fund other accessible women’s health services in Brighton. Firstly the Lady Chichester Hospital and later, with Dr Louisa Martindale, in founding the New Sussex Hospital for Women. Robins played a key role in the management committees of the hospitals and helping to raise funds using her writing skills and theatrical contacts.
Elizabeth was a close friend of Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst and Virginia and Leonard Woolf, and was admired by Oscar Wilde, Henry James and George Bernard Shaw. She died in 1952 at Montpelier Crescent, now fittingly housing Seven Dials Medical Centre. Today there is a blue plaque outside, jointly commemorating her and Octavia Wilberforce on their contribution to fighting for women’s equality.
