To the University of St Andrews and back… from Behind the Bridge

Alumni Relations

Friday 3 July 2026

Mansoor Ibrahim (MB ChB 1966) grew up in Trinidad and Tobago, studied Medicine at St Andrews, waltzed with the Queen at Balmoral and, at the age of 88, continues to practise his profession for a couple of hours a day, back Behind the Bridge. Mansoor’s daughter, Dr Amina Ibrahim-Ali shares his story of work, method and discipline.

Mansoor Ibrahim grew up ‘Behind the Bridge’ (east Port-of-Spain), Trinidad and Tobago. It was a place where eminent scholars were raised and the national instrument, the melodious steelpan, originated. When his elder brother Majid visited from his studies abroad, he was amazed that Mansoor, at the age of 12 or 13, had posted up a schedule which carefully carved out time slots for his studies, sporting activities and household duties. Mansoor explained that he had seen, and was inspired by, the words ‘work’, ‘method’ and ‘discipline’ on a calendar. He adopted these as guiding principles and later shared them with Reverend Gilbert, a local minister who would, from time to time, assist Reverend Spiers, Chaplain to the University of St Andrews. Rev. Gilbert later used those words in an address to students.

Years later Mansoor would draw up a weekly schedule for his own children as he taught them the value of structuring their time to accommodate their tasks and being consistent in order to achieve their goals. But his children also understood that applying the right method to work did not always guarantee success. Discipline meant remaining focused and hopeful when there were setbacks. And Mansoor’s own life was testament to this.

Admission to St Andrews

He successfully sat the Queen’s Royal College entrance examination but was not admitted because he was overage. Instead, he began his secondary school career at the Progressive Educational Institute. After placing 13th in the islands in the Cambridge School Certificate examination, he was admitted into the selfsame Queen’s Royal College to pursue the Cambridge Higher School Education Certificate on a government scholarship. While he had dreamt of becoming an engineer like Majid, he was obligated to honour his late father’s wish and become a doctor. But Mansoor was in a quandary. Science subjects had not been offered at the Progressive Educational Institute, and this influenced the subjects he chose for the Cambridge Higher School Education Certificate, which were Maths, Further Maths, Subsidiary Spanish and French.

Once graduated from Queen’s Royal College, Mansoor contemplated his entry into medicine while he worked in a clerical capacity at the Ministry of Health and the Department of Medical Sciences in Port-of-Spain. He sought counsel from the Ministry of Education and was advised to complete his science subjects at a technical college in London. But, while on his way to England aboard a French liner called the SS Colombie, Mansoor met some of his high school contemporaries who urged him to apply to a Scottish university. He wrote to the Scottish Universities Council who agreed to admit him.

In 1959 he arrived for an interview for admission into the Faculty of Medicine at St Andrews, without science subjects and dressed in a rumpled suit following an overnight train ride. Other candidates, in contrast, wore smart three-piece suits and bowties. Mansoor was impressed by their English accents and genuinely believed that he did not stand a chance at securing a place at the University. Of the 35 interviewees, two were accepted. Mansoor was one of them. His journey into medicine began with a nine-month preparatory period during which time he would complete from scratch the science subjects he lacked.

While his schedule at the University of St Andrews was a logical progression of the one which he had used in high school and ample time was dedicated to attending lectures and to rigorous study, this Caribbean doctor-to-be fully engaged with student life and now adhered to a tightly packed timetable, but one which still rested on the concept of work, method and discipline. He served as vice president of the Bute Medical Society, one of the oldest and most active student organisations at St Andrews, founded in 1915. He was also a member of the debating team, and he frequently played squash. He, along with 15 other students were selected, as was the annual practice at St Andrews’, to participate in grouse beating at Balmoral Castle. Mansoor remembers the fluttering of his own heart as they, the students, performed the role of beaters, advancing together in a carefully coordinated line which brought the birds from their hiding places into flight.

The group later attended the Ghillies Ball, where Mansoor was honoured with a request by Queen Elizabeth to waltz with her. He was quite nervous at this prospect and, having never waltzed before, did not know whether or not he simply ‘walked’ with the Queen. But he was readily put at ease as Her Majesty politely acknowledged that he was from Trinidad and Tobago, and added that her sister, Princess Margaret, also in attendance at the ball, had visited his homeland.

Community and cultural exchange

The sense of community at St Andrews evoked memories in Mansoor of his childhood home. His father had nurtured a relationship with the community through his bakery business and the mosque which he had built in the capital city. Visiting scholars and their families were accommodated in the family home, as too were students who attended school in Port-of-Spain, but who lived some distance away. The Overseas Society at St Andrews, in particular, reminded Mansoor of this hospitality as he, along with other international students, were welcomed and supported by their regents, members of the chaplaincy and local volunteers who opened their homes to them and afforded them the opportunity for cultural exchange. Mansoor fondly remembers the weekly brunch the Overseas Society hosted atop a cinema house.

It was then that Mansoor realised that success was not a personal achievement, but rather a collective effort. While he valued the brilliant lectures delivered by Emeritus Professor of Anatomy Professor Robert Walmsley, for example, he equally appreciated the rapport the professor had cultivated with him. He treasured his chats with Reverend Gilbert who occasionally invited him to prepare a Caribbean curry.

But Mansoor basked in the congeniality of, not only his mentors, but also of his colleagues whose friendships often sustained him. When fellow student Keith Morris (MB ChB 1965) discovered one year that he would be alone for the Christmas holidays, he insisted that Mansoor accompany him to his family home in Nottingham. The two friends squashed into Keith’s convertible. Mansoor held his suitcase on his lap as Keith drove for miles and the pouring rain made its way inside the vehicle.

He and John Wedderburn (MB ChB 1965) got caught in a snowdrift while hiking. Wedderburn would later joke about Mansoor becoming so desperate that he declared that he wanted to be left alone to die. His friends understood that, as a Muslim, Mansoor would not consume alcoholic beverages but, when he horsed around as they did, Wedderburn remarked that Mansoor was the only person he knew who got drunk on Coca-Cola and soda.

Medicine and marriage

In 1962 during a summer visit home, Mansoor received offers of marriage but was not interested in any of them. In those days, it was customary for parents of young adults to approach other parents on behalf of their children. His brother-in-law, Tawfiq-ur-Rahman, who was married to Mansoor’s sister, Mehrun, suggested that Mansoor and his (Tawfiq’s) sister, Rasheeda, wed. The two had known each other for years but now seemed to be more strongly drawn together and made plans to get engaged for the two years which remained for Mansoor to complete his degree. Tawfiq-ur-Rahman advised that marriage was the superior option to any arrangement to become engaged and Mansoor and Rasheeda planned their wedding and got married within the span of three days. Mansoor left Trinidad in September and Rasheeda joined him in Dundee, Scotland, in December that year, where they cherished their time together.

While the focus was on Mansoor completing his medical degree, there was now housework to be done, and larger bills. This was particularly so when the couple’s firstborn, daughter Rayya, arrived in 1964. Mansoor continued to do odd jobs to supplement the £25 which Majid sent monthly for him.  The annual cost of tuition had also moved from £45 to £60, and he no longer lived in the hall of residence where meals were included. He customarily took laundry to the laundromat and helped to wash the dishes on Saturdays.

Rasheeda carefully followed Mansoor’s schedule. While he was studying, she quietly knitted or crocheted, as she had come to value the watchwords ‘work’, ‘method’ and ‘discipline’. But she quickly understood the importance that community activities played in her husband’s success and wellbeing. They befriended West Indian students and couples, and Rasheeda built friendships with Mansoor’s colleagues and their spouses whom they subsequently met at reunions at St Andrews’ until 2015. John Wedderburn remarked that Rasheeda was the stabilising factor in Mansoor’s life. When the couple visited, he pointed them to a room where they could offer their prayers.

Healing hands

When they were expecting their second child, the couple made the decision to sell their belongings and return to Trinidad and Tobago on the SS Camito in July 1965. The following October Mansoor returned to Scotland, leaving behind Rasheeda and their 16-month- and two-month-old daughters. In December, Mansoor passed an examination he had returned to re-sit. That year, the government of Trinidad and Tobago were paying the return airfare for doctors who had qualified abroad as a means of encouraging them to return home for their internships. Mansoor was eager to return home and reunite with Rasheeda and their two daughters and knew that the money for his ticket would take weeks to arrive. He made an appointment to see the manager of British Linen Bank. This was the bank where the Majid had sent him £25 every month for the past five years. Without asking for anything in writing, the manager loaned Mansoor the money.

As Mansoor made his way home, he recalled bringing relief as a teenager to his father’s severe, undiagnosed abdominal pain with a mixture of Minard’s liniment and oil. He should become a doctor, his father had advised, because of his healing hands. And he realised that his father had been right in guiding him in that direction.

Mansoor ran a thriving medical practice in Port-of-Spain for some 58 years, where he was primarily of service to the residents of Behind the Bridge (east Port-of-Spain). During that time, he was known for delivering babies and performing circumcisions, and for his countless house calls quite often through narrow streets and hilly areas to ageing patients who could no longer venture to his office.

These days he works out of a shared practice for a couple of hours a day. After 61 years of work, Rasheeda and his children would like him to retire. They believe that it is time. But, at age 88, Mansoor continues to awaken every day with determination to do the work that God meant him to. And he is ever careful to apply the correct method and discipline.

“By nature, honest; by experience, wise, and healthy by temperance and exercise“. (John Wedderburn’s comment about Mansoor, University of St Andrews yearbook, 1965)