Bedford College , Managers of the Residence

In 1860, Mrs Reid gave £2,000 to her friends Elizabeth Ann Bostock, Jane Martineau and Eleanor Elizabeth Smith, to purchase the lease of 48 Bedford Square as a boarding house for pupils of Bedford College, administering the money as Managers of the Residence. There was no formal trust agreement, even following Jane Martineau's death in 1882, until 1885, when the relevant documentation was created and a further three women became Trustees (Ethel Glazebrook, Sophia Margaretta Pilcher and Madeline Shaw Lefevre).

The three Managers agreed to rent part of Number 48 to the College, retaining the remainder of the rooms for the boarding house. This meant that although in close proximity, the management of the College and the Residence were entirely separate. The Managers were directly responsible for everything to do with the boarders, including discipline and propriety. A Lady Superintendent was employed to watch over the young women staying there. On Mrs Reid's death in 1866, the lease of 47 Bedford Square also became the property of the Managers (the three women were also Reid Trustees), giving them a great deal of say in the future of the College, and allowing them to demand a new Constitution (created by a Committee of Management in 1868-1869).

In 1874, due to serious overcrowding and lack of facilities at Bedford Square, the Managers of the Residence leased 8 and 9 York Place, to which Bedford College transferred in the same year, and used the income from the capital of the Trust to help in the maintenance of various buildings and the lease of further accommodation in the surrounding area. Buildings leased included 64, 65 and 66 East Street in 1886, directly behind the College, and work was undertaken to build the Shaen Wing in 1889. Once again, as with the houses at Bedford Square, the Managers leased the College part of all the new premises.

Despite their opposition to the merging of the College and the Residence, which they saw as undermining the independence of the latter, the Managers agreed in 1893 to the merging of the offices of Lady Resident (responsible for the College) and Lady Superintendent (responsible for the Residence) in the person of a Lady Principal. The successful candidate, Miss Emily Penrose, was therefore to report to both the College and the Managers separately, a complicated situation which was remedied by an offer by the Managers in 1894 to hand over to the College Council entire responsibility for the management of the Residence, together with the leases of 8 and 9 York Place and the East Street Residences. The offer was accepted.

The Managers of the Residence retained the capital of Mrs Reid's Residence Trust, together with savings accumulated. The income was used for various maintenance projects, such as the acquisition of 7 York Place, and the possible redemption of the leases of York Place and East Street. In 1927 the sole surviving Manager, Mrs Pilcher, handed over the Trust to the College.