Ida Mann was educated at Wycombe House School and the London School of Medicine for Women. She was the first woman to hold a chair at Oxford University and the first woman surgeon at Moorsfields Eye Hospital (London). In 1944, Mann married Professor W. E. Gye and they arrived in Western Australia in 1948 (or 1949?).
Mann worked as ophthalmic surgeon and supported the establishment of a medical school at the University of Western Australia. She undertook investigative work relating to trachoma amongst the Aboriginal people in Northern Australia and extended her research to other remote regions of the world, working as a consultant to the World Health Organisation.
She was appointed CBE in 1950 and elevated to DBE in 1980.
Her papers are held by the JS Battye Library (MN1211).