Sultanah Helen Ibrahim

Lady Helen Ibrahim ( Helen Bartholomew; previously Wilson; 21 December 1899 – 13 August 1977), was the 3rd Sultanah of Johor while married to Sultan Sir Ibrahim Iskandar Al-Masyhur ibni Almarhum Sultan Sir Abu Bakar, the 22nd Sultan of Johor. Early life Born in Glasgow, Scotland on 21 December 1899 and Scottish by birth, she was the daughter of a master saw-maker from Stirlingshire. Her first marriage was to William Brockie Wilson, a Malayan-born Scot, they wed in Singapore on 14 March 1914. He was a physician by training. Bartholomew first met Sultan Ibrahim when Wilson became the Sultan's physician. Helen had followed her husband all the way from Scotland to then British Malaya. They later divorced in 1925. Marriage to the Sultan Sultan Ibrahim was a known Anglophile and loved to spend his time travelling around Europe, especially to the United Kingdom. The Sultan enrolled his sons, by his two Malay wives, to be educated in Britain. It was during this time he renewed his acquaintance with the widow and asked her to keep an eye on his boys. Sultan Ibrahim visited Bartholomew and the boys from time to time and Bartholomew's relationship with the boys was very close.