Appreciations
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She
cared for all, people and animals Along with him she became a champion of the rural people and the poor, as she believed and supported her husband in his great life's work: helping in the institution of organizations such as ‘Sarvodaya’ and the ‘National Heritage Foundation’. Since these moves resonated so well with her charitable personality, this became her way of life. As her children say, "she was an amazing woman", and this was one of the sacrifices they had to make when she adopted a life of simplicity. Eva, a Christian was a lady of great sensitivity. All that she did was done with a personal concern, that reflected what she gave her children - unconditional love, love that she so generously showered also on the destitute, the despondent and the disabled . Her love for those in need is seen in her work both in her home and outside, such as the 'Prithipura Home.' It was a personal odyssey for her not only to help, but to hold the children and give them the warmth of a caring mother, which was the most important need of those often rejected ones. She also helped out in a similar manner at the "Animal Welfare Society". She cared for the stray cats, dogs and wounded birds that were regularly abandoned at her door-step. She had them nurtured, attended to all their other medical needs and found homes for them, failing which she adopted them. She will remain in our minds, and in our hearts always as a warm, caring, beautiful soul, who leaves behind with us extraordinary, precious memories of a loving friendship - not lost but gone ahead. For as Helen Steiner Rice observed: "...
life is eternal, Dr. Grace and Sudhir Barr-Kumarakulasinghe Political
activist who stood for justice
Hedi Stadlen lived in Sri Lanka for five years during the Second World War where she was an indefatigable political activist who identified herself with the colonised people, living among them and sharing in their struggles for social justice and freedom. Born Hedwig Magdalena Simon on January 6, 1916 in Vienna to Else Reis and the economist and banker Hans Simon, her studies in science at Vienna University were interrupted by the virulent anti-semitism of the 1930s that drove her family to leave Austria for the safety of Switzerland and later the United States. Hedi Stadlen continued her studies but switched to Moral Sciences (philosophy) at Newnham College in Cambridge under the tutelage of Ludwig Wittgenstein, graduating with First Class Honours in 1939, but as a woman was excluded under university rules from the award of her degree! There was time for radical politics and she spent her weekends in London working for the cause of Indian freedom in Krishna Menon's India League. As she later explained to Kumari Jayawardena, "the racial discrimination suffered by the Jews in Austria made me feel sympathetic to the victims of colonial rule and strengthened my determination to identify with the fight for the freedom and independence of colonial peoples" (The Sunday Island, January 6, 1991). It was at Cambridge University that she met and fell in love with Pieter Keuneman - whom another contemporary, British historian Eric Hobsbawm, enviously recalled as "dashing, witty and remarkably handsome" in his recent memoir Interesting Times (2002). Pieter Keuneman was President of the Cambridge Union, editor of the student magazine The Granta, and one of two sons of a Supreme Court Justice in Ceylon (as it then was). However it was the maelstrom of international politics that threw them together as capitalist crisis, the Spanish Civil War, fascist victories in Germany and Italy, and the powerful counter-example of the Soviet Union attracted them as it did many others of their generation to the British Communist Party. Hedi and Pieter Keuneman were married in Switzerland in September 1939. They proceeded to Sri Lanka the following year where the left movement had recently divided on its approach to the anti-colonial struggle in the wake of the Second World War. Both joined the United Socialist Party that was pro-Soviet Union in orientation and advocated co-operation with the colonial government against the common enemy of fascism. Hedi Keuneman briefly taught between 1940 and 1942 at both the Colombo University, and the Modern School initiated by another Communist emigrant and India League veteran, Doreen Wickremesinghe. She was particularly active in the 'Friends of the Soviet Union': an international solidarity campaign with the socialist lodestar. She distributed pro-Communist literature including Pieter Keuneman's The Soviet Way (1942), published leaflets, and addressed meetings in Colombo and elsewhere among English-speaking supporters. She also authored a pamphlet Under Nazi Rule publicising Hitler's tyranny, "especially highlighting the oppression of German women under Fascism" (Kumari Jayewardena). Food rationing followed the outbreak of war and co-operative societies were formed to distribute affordable food stocks. Hedi Keuneman was elected president of one such association, monitoring food stocks and prices in central Colombo, and popularising local, cheaper, food cereals such as bajiri, earning herself the sobriquet 'bajiri nona'. In 1943 when the Communist Party of Ceylon was formed, Pieter Keuneman became its first General Secretary. He recollected (Sunday Times, 11 October 1992) their austere living as Hedi and he subsisted on boiled del fruit and sambol, living modestly in Borella, so as to be near the CP office in Cotta Road (now Dr. N. M. Perera Mawatha). Pieter Keuneman also edited the CP's English-language weekly newspaper, Forward, that Hedi would sell. The artist Ouida Keuneman, then a schoolgirl at Methodist College and decades later to marry Pieter Keuneman, remembered first meeting Hedi when a beautiful woman with shoulder-length black hair, barefoot, and in a red sari insisted on selling her the party paper on her way to school (The Island, 9 February 1997). With the end of the war in 1945, Hedi Keuneman travelled to Europe to meet her mother as Communists were barred from entering the United States, where her father had died in 1942. She chose not to return to Pieter Keuneman and therefore to Sri Lanka. Instead she began a new relationship with an old friend from Vienna, Peter Stadlen, whom she subsequently married in 1953, and lived with in the North London suburb of Hampstead. He was a concert pianist whom injury obliged to turn to music criticism chiefly for the Daily Telegraph. Hedi Stadlen was his willing collaborator, influenced no doubt by her own musical heritage as grand-niece of the composer and conductor, Johann Strauss. Following her husband's death on January 20, 1996, she volunteered until two years ago at a school for children with learning difficulties, helping them with their reading. While Hedi Stadlen never rejoined the Communist Party, her obituaries in the Independent, Guardian, and Times recognised that she never renounced her socialist convictions. Erased from official history and institutional memory, Hedi Stadlen was one among those western women, who inspired by socialist internationalism betrayed their origins of class and colour, taking on more universal identities and allegiances. Hedi Stadlen is survived by her sons Nicholas, a commercial law barrister, and Godfrey, a senior civil servant in the Home Office, and their five children. B. Skanthakumar Memories
of a true sportsman and gentleman
He was a person blessed with many natural gifts. He had a strong constitution, good looks, a high degree of intelligence, an even greater degree of integrity and gentlemanliness and a distinctive penchant for sport. He was a third generation Thomian cricketer, his father having played in 1914-1915 and his grandfather in the latter part of the 19th century. Today critics and modern Sri Lankans may be sceptical of the greatest cricketers who did not have the fortune or were born too early to play Test Cricket. I know it is difficult to compare two eras but with all due respect to current players I still maintain, that some of the 'greats' of yesteryear could have well surpassed the present lot, given the opportunity, the finances, the perks and the encouragement. Past cricketers played for the love of the game and the honour of representing the country. Willie was one such player who through the late forties captained a Sri Lankan representative Eleven against Ranji Trophy champions Holkar that had over half a dozen Test players in that strong Indian team led by Col. C K Nayudu. Cricket was Willie's first love, which he played with calm authority. His best efforts were performed for his old school, the Colts, the Nondescripts and in Mercantile Cricket. He also excelled in relay racing, hockey and soccer. The highlight of his school cricket career was his 62 and 110 not out which was a true captain's innings which helped S. Thomas beat Royal in 1937, a game I was privileged to witness. Willie prospered in sport because he was correct in everything he did, as in his approach to life, family, work and his friends. I can vouch for all this as I was his clubmate for several years and played under his captaincy in both the lower division and in friendly matches. He certainly had a sobering influence on the young blood who played under him. He always gave views with a clarity that left nothing to imagination but one couldn't help but being impressed with his knowledge, his analysis of a situation, a player or an incident. They were scientific masterpieces. I have served with him on a few committees at the Club and I never failed to be impressed by his sense of justice and fair play. His mental discipline always equalled his physical efforts. Old timers may remember him as a fierce opponent but also a wonderful friend. Willie the man was loved as much as Willie the sportsman. He was a most unassuming person who had an appealing gentleness and kindness about him. To crown it all, he had the gift of smiling quietly at failure and triumph alike. There are just a handful of his team mates from the old college left. They are Bertie Wijesinghe, Donald Kannangara, Eardley Herman and perhaps A. J. de Bruin in Australia. He leaves behind his loving wife, Louise and his children Wendy and Willie (Jnr.) and a trail of fine achievements. What more could you ask from a true sportsman and gentleman now that he is no more. Only the fine memory of his greatness remains. Harold de Andrado
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