| Basil Wilberforce | |
| Birth Name: | Albert Basil Orme Wilberforce |
| Birth Date: | 14 February 1841 |
| Occupation: | Priest and author |
| Years Active: | 1866 - 1916 |
| Burial Place: | Westminster Abbey |
| Mother: | Emily Wilberforce |
| Father: | Samuel Wilberforce |
| Relatives: | William Wilberforce (grandfather) Ernest Wilberforce (brother) |
Albert Basil Orme Wilberforce (14 February 1841 – 13 May 1916) was an Anglican priest and author in the second half of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th. He was the Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons and Archdeacon of Westminster.
Born in Winchester as the youngest son of Samuel Wilberforce (and therefore grandson of famed abolitionist William Wilberforce; his elder brother Ernest became Bishop of Newcastle then of Chichester), he was educated at Eton College and Exeter College, Oxford and ordained in 1866.[1]
He was chaplain to the Bishop of Oxford and then held curacies at Cuddesdon, Seaton and Southsea. He was Rector of St. Mary's, Southampton from 1871 to 1894, and an Honorary Canon of Winchester. In April 1894 he was appointed Canon of Westminster Abbey and Rector of the parish church of St John the Evangelist, annexed to Westminster.
He was appointed Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons in 1896, and continually re-elected to the post until his death in 1916. Biographer Charlotte Elizabeth Woods wrote that "[f]ew Chaplains have filled this time-honoured post with so much dignity, grace, and distinction."[2]
In 1900 he was appointed the Archdeacon of Westminster.[3]
He married Charlotte Langford on 28 November 1865 at St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge.[4] Both of them were supporters of the Broadlands conference on spiritualism.[5]
He was a strong supporter of the temperance movement, and abstained from all alcohol after 31.[6] He was good friends with temperance leader Lady Henry Somerset.
He died on 13 May 1916. He was 75.[7]
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