Philanthropic Activities and Charitable Contributions

In addition to her immeasurable financial and moral support for Reid Hall, Elisabeth Mills Reid also contributed to many other initiatives and organizations. The dates below are as correct as possible, since sources are not always precise.

1881 – c. 1899

• Helped organize the New York Chapter of the Red Cross and was its Secretary during the Spanish-American war; as chair of the Committee on Nursing for the Spanish-American War, she convinced President McKinley to send 600 Red Cross nurses to the Philippines and Cuba.
• In consultation with Bishop Charles Henry Brent, helped build the Episcopal residence in Manila and the Episcopal Cathedral in Manila.

c. 1887

• Supported the medical clinic for the Chapel of the Church of the Intercession in New York, on 31st Street and 2nd Avenue. For more than 40 years, Reid paid the salary of the nurse who managed this clinic.

1888 – ?

• Member of the Board of the Mills Training School for Male Nurses, founded by her father in 1888 at Bellevue Hospital, New York City.
• President of the New York House and School of Industry, a position she held for close to 50 years. Founded and managed by a group of women, the House and School aimed to address the problems of poor women by training them to do chores so that they could find positions as domestic servants.
• Served on the Board of Managers of the Bethlehem Day Nursery, which was maintained by the Church of the Incarnation.                 

Late 1890s

• Member of the “American Ladies Hospital Ship Fund Committee” based in London, headed by Lady Randolph Churchill (mother of Winston Churchill). The committee launched a highly successful fundraising campaign to refit the cattle ship Maine into a hospital for wounded British soldiers in the South African Wars. Since she had previously worked with nurses and the American Red Cross, Reid was asked to select hospital staff – four female nurses, 11 male nurses, and one nurses’ superintendent. One of the wards on the ship was named “Whitelaw Reid” (Thurmond 57).

1900

• Member of the Board of Trustees of the New York Orthopedic Hospital

1905

• Director the New York Chapter of the American Red Cross

1908

• Collaborated with the rector of St. Matthews’ Episcopal Church to fund the building of the Mills Memorial Hospital in San Mateo, California. She regularly visited the hospital and funded its annual deficits,  bequeathing $500,000 to it upon her death. This private hospital with six beds expanded steadily and is now part of Mills-Penninsula Health Services.

1910

• Founded the "Elizabeth Whitelaw Reid Club" and rented a building on Cloudesley Street (Islington, London). 
  • "In 1910 the Elizabeth Whitelaw Reid Club had opened on the school premises, bringing an American connection to the Stonefield Estate. […] The Holy Trinity club was one of a network she had established in American cities and were designed to provide improving activities for young people in deprived communities. Both Whitelaw Reid and her daughter Lady Jean Templeton Ward, took a personal interest in the Islington club. Lady Ward continued her connection into the 1950s, paying much of the rebuilding costs after a fire in 1958. The youth club continued to run, under the auspices of the Mary Ward Settlement, and in 1958 Cloudesley sold the fire-damaged building outright to the Elizabeth Whitelaw Reid Clubs for Young People Ltd, for £2,200,110. The building was extensively renovated with grant support from Islington Metropolitan Borough and the City Parochial Foundation. When the Whitelaw Reid youth club closed in the 1960s the building was sold on to a related organisation, the Grubb Institute. In Holy Trinity Church there is a plaque commemorating Elizabeth Whitelaw Reid and two others devoted to Kate Gallwey and Maud Alice Bartlett, respectively leader and deputy leader of the club for 30 years.

1910 – 1911

• At their father’s request, as stated in his will, Elisabeth and her brother Ogden donated $100,000 to St. Luke’s Hospital in San Francisco.

1911

• Donated $10,000 for the Nurses Cottage at the Adirondack Cottage Sanatorium, named in honor of Reid’s deceased father. It could house up to six nursing students.

1912

• Funded the establishment of the Red Cross Rural Nursing Service (later Town and Country Nursing Service), which she chaired from 1913-1915.
• In memory of her father, helped fund the D. Ogden Mills Training School for Nurses at the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium; the school received its accreditation from the New York State Board of Regents in 1921. At the time, nurses were given special training in the care of tuberculosis patients.

1913

• In memory of her husband, she funded a stained-glass window above the chancel in the chapel of St. Martin at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York.

1914

• Endowed a chair in the name of Whitelaw Reid in the Town Hall of New York (today's City Hall).
• Donated $1,000 to the British Red Red Cross. Covered the costs of 12 British nurses sent to Mexico by the American Red Cross for a month.

1915

• Chair of the London chapter of the American Red Cross, which operated a workshop of nearly 2,000 women who produced dressings, bandages, splints and other hospital necessities. About one-third of this workforce was American, the rest were British.

1917

• Is made deputy commissioner of the American Red Cross Commission for Britain. Donates goods weekly, sent from the U.S. to British soldiers.

1919

• Member of the Board of Trustees of the New York Orthopedic Hospital. Donated a tablet honoring Colonel Roosevelt for his services to his father's institution.

1920s

• Founded in London:

1. The Elisabeth Whitelaw Reid Club and Home in Barnsbury for young people, offering indoor sports, lectures, and debates on current topics. Later, she also founded an annex at Peace Haven on the Essex coast.
2. A training home for domestic servants
3. An orphanage 
4. Boy Scout and Girl Guide troops; Cubs were called “Whitelaw Reid’s Own.”

1924 – 1925

• Chosen, with Elihu Root, to be a United States presidential elector-at-large. Voted for Calvin Coolidge.
• As Sovereign Head of the Grand Priory of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, a revival of the Order of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of the Crusade, King George named her Lady of Grace of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem.
• Contributed $10,000 to build the children's arch in the nave of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in memory of her granddaughter, who died of typhoid fever.

1930s

• Gifted Reid House at Saranac Lake to the Trudeau Sanatorium, inaugurated on August 28, 1930. A memorial to her father, the house was considered one of the best-equipped homes for nurses in the United States. With additional funding from Reid, the school was expanded to accommodate twenty-three student nurses and was equipped with a library, lecture hall, diet and demonstration kitchens, a living room, and reception room. As of 1935, 157 young women had graduated. The school continued to educate young women for nursing careers until its final class in 1936.
• Appointed to the Port of New York's survey to devise improvements in customs inspection. One of two women on a committee of 25, headed by journalist and law enforcement officer Arthur Woods.
• Contributed to the building of St. Luke’s Cathedral in San Francisco.
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Member of the Church of the Reincarnation in New York for close to 50 years and supported missionary and charitable efforts of the Episcopal Church.

Member of Bellevue's Board of Women Managers for 48 years.

Sources

See the sources on the main page: Elisabeth Mills Reid.