Noor Hassanali

Who was Noor Hassanali?

Noor Mohamed Hassanali, TC was the second President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. A retired High Court judge, President Hassanali was the first Indo-Trinidadian to hold the office of President and was the first Muslim head of state in the Americas. The sixth of seven children, Hassanali was born in San Fernando and was educated at Canaan and Corinth Canadian Mission Primary Schools and Naparima College. After graduating he taught at Naparima from 1938 to 1943. In 1943 he travelled to Canada, where he studied at the University of Toronto. While in Canada he served as a member of the Canadian Officers Training Corps from 1943 until the end of the war in 1945. He was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in London in 1948.

Noor Hassanali worked as a lawyer in private practice from 1948 to 1953, when he was appointed as a Magistrate. In 1960 he was appointed Senior Magistrate and later that year was appointed Senior Crown Counsel in Attorney General's Chambers. In 1965 he was appointed Assistant Solicitor General and the following year he was appointed Judge of the High Court. In 1978 he was appointed to the Court of Appeal and retired on 14 April 1985. He was elected President in 1987 following elections which brought the National Alliance for Reconstruction to government. Although the office of President was largely ceremonial he was such a popular national figure that he was re-elected in 1992 by the People's National Movement administration.