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The National Trust is celebrating the life of one of its remarkable founders, Octavia Hill (1838–1912). As someone who played a pivotal role in the housing reform movement, was a passionate campaigner for green spaces and numbered John Ruskin among her supporters, her relative anonymity is surprising. But this is about to change.

To mark the centenary of her death a range of events throughout 2012 will give people the chance to find out more about a woman who typified the passion, vision and hands-on approach of the National Trust.

Octavia’s concern for open spaces was born of her experience of inner city housing conditions. To her, small parks and patches of green were vital ‘outdoor sitting rooms’. Her vision was not confined to the small scale, but extended to an early dream of protecting countryside from an ever-expanding urban sprawl. Her formidable achievements as an environmental and open space campaigner led to her co-founding the National Trust in 1895 with Sir Robert Hunter and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley.

Her vision remains a fundamental part of the National Trust and is now reflected ever more strongly in our ambition to encourage more people to get outdoors and closer to nature.