Born in Munich Bavaria. He was a great-grandson of William Wilberforce. He was educated in England and graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1884. He worked with J. J. Thomson at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge and was appointed lecturer in 1900. In the same year he became professor of physics at University College, Liverpool

In 1896 he published is work on vibrations of a loaded spiral spring, today known as Wilberforce pendulum. Most of his time at the University of Cambridge and University of Liverpool was dedicated to the teaching of these principles and lechery.