APPRECIATIONS
View(s):Maritime expert and rare gentleman
LIEUTENANT COMMANDER SOMASIRI DEVENDRA
It was with much sadness that I received the news of the demise of Lieutenant Commander Somasiri Devendra. I had met him and his lovely wife Dayadari at their residence in Dehiwala only a couple of weeks earlier to discuss some of his discoveries such as the Nicholson Cove Inscription in Trincomalee and to seek his help with some photographs to illustrate a coffee table book on the island’s coasts I was working on.
He kindly obliged and shared with me a few photographs some days later and when I sought his formal permission to reproduce these in my upcoming work, he simply replied “Certainly you can use the pictures for the coffee book. I am now dependent on a walker!” Never did I realise that day in early June would be the last time I would meet him. He was 92 years old at the time, but still very much in his gear.
I had met the great man several times before and our last meeting did not strike me as being any different. Here was, after all, a man who was passionate about what he did and it always showed in conversation. But he was more than that, he was a gentleman of the highest calibre and the best I have ever known, a much respected naval officer, maritime archaeologist, discoverer, teacher, researcher and author. Few men have contributed to our nation as he has done. When I think about him, all I can say to myself is “What a man!”
But that was Lieut. Cmdr Devendra. Born in the inter-war years, 1933 to be exact, he was the second son of archaeologist and scholar Don Titus (D.T.) Devendra and Ruth Felsianes and I cannot but suspect it was that hybrid vigour born of this mixed union that contributed to that restlessness that characterized him right to his last days.
Although a navy man by training, he was drawn to his father D.T.Devendra’s passion for archaeology not by virtue of his paternal heritage, but upon the chance discovery of an Arabic inscription in Nicholson’s Cove which spoke of a deceased Arab woman who was the daughter of Amir Badruddin Husayn who was the son of Ali Al Halabi who apparently hailed from Halab (Aleppo) in Syria. The resulting paper contributed to the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Ceylon titled ‘Arabic Gravestone from Trincomalee Dockyard’ established his reputation as a scholar and prompted deeper forays into the field of maritime archaeology which was just emerging as a scientific discipline.
He would eventually go on to lead a number of pioneering projects such as the ‘Sri Lanka-British Colombo Reefs Survey’ in the 1980s, the maritime archaeology excavation known as ‘The Galle Harbour Project’ in the 1990s culminating in the ground-breaking excavation of the Dutch shipwreck Avondster in Galle Harbour in the early 2000s. More recently he served as the main editor of a most interesting coffee table book titled ‘Island of Islands’ , a National Trust publication on the many offshore and inland islands of Sri Lanka.
Among the works he authored were ‘A Man called Ceylon’, a fascinating true life story about his adventurous seafaring maternal grandfather Lloyd Aswald who was referred to as ‘Ceylon’ by his shipmates and who must have been the inspiration behind his own fascination for all things relating to sea and water-craft. Another interesting work he authored was ‘From Wooden Walls to Ironclads” about Galle in the age of iron steamships. These works which he gifted to me would form a much treasured collection in my little home library.
He was also a great speaker and the last one I heard was the most memorable when he was part of a panel in a lecture series titled ‘Colombo Under Our Feet’ organized by the Ceylon Society of Australia in January this year and held at the Colombo Lighthouse. Here he spoke on as many as three very different topics,: the Big Guns of Colombo Lighthouse in the 1950s, the legend of the traitor Gaspar Da Figueira who tradition tells us was immured alive by the Dutch somewhere in Colombo Fort and a Tribute to a long gone Banyan Tree by Sophia Marshall.
But that was the Devendra he had always been, a polymath of sorts, delving into one discipline after another and bringing out the best of it in his inherent restlessness.
An officer, gentleman and mentor. I salute you Sir. Although you now rest in peace, your indefatigable spirit lives on to inspire those of younger vintage.
Asiff Hussein
He did much to serve the community through Rotary
DULIP F. R. JAYAMAHA
Dulip Jayamaha joined the Rotary Club of Colombo North in 1979. It was a club to which I too belonged at that time and also was relatively new to Rotary. Through our joint efforts on many projects of the club, we got to know each other well. It would be fair to say that Dulip became one of the most enthusiastic and active Rotarians among us.
Dulip was a strongly principled person who had a friendly disposition. He was popular among his colleagues and also much liked by others who came in contact with him. He had received his early school education at St. Peter’s College and at St. Benedict’s College, Colombo. Thereafter he joined Law College as he was keen to follow in his father’s footsteps into the legal profession.
Soon after he took oaths his father passed away. Dulip then set up his own law firm. It kept him professionally active through 56 years of his adult life. In recognition of his contribution to his chosen profession, he received the honour of being made a ‘President’s Counsel’ by the President of Sri Lanka
There were many community service projects he got involved in. He took even the smaller but nevertheless important club projects very seriously. I recall his efforts on securing a water supply project for a village called Rambewa near Anuradhapura. It was a project we handled jointly on behalf of the club. We visited that village first to examine the problem in its geographic setting; then again to meet the people and key local officials to discuss proposals and yet again to formally present the completed scheme and hand it over to the village.
Dulip held many important positions in the club. During his term as International Service Director in 1989/90 he communicated with a few Rotary Clubs in Europe and Japan and through his efforts the club received donations amounting to several millions of Rupees which were all duly gifted to projects in needy local public hospitals. Later in 1991/92, as Director of the club’s community service arm, he successfully negotiated with Rotary’s World Community Service Programme to receive an urgently needed External Heart Pacemaker for the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital Galle, that surely would have helped save many lives.
Sometime later, following the terrible destruction wrought on our island by the tsunami, Dulip took on the task to chair the club’s committee formed to deal with tsunami impacted schools. The club’s task assigned by a national Rotary committee involved designing and rebuilding what was virtually a totally destroyed large primary school along with its infrastructure in Kudaththanai in the Northern Province in the distant outskirts of Jaffna. This project which involved much work was successfully completed. It was considered important enough to be ceremonially declared open by the then world leader of Rotary International during a timely visit by him to Sri Lanka in 2011. He was accompanied by many national Rotary dignitaries and officials of the Education Ministry.
Among Dulip’s efforts on a great many projects was his contribution with a few others to help organize jointly with the Colombo YMCA, year after year, the extremely popular All Island Inter-school Shakespeare Drama Competition. His efforts on this project will certainly not be forgotten by the club.
His keen interest in service to the community through Rotary was surely very infectious. His daughter Lasika joined the same club, did much good work and in due time rose within its ranks to be elected as its President in 2023/24.
Despite the many recurrent important demands of his professional career, Dulip somehow found time for voluntary community service through Rotary. He successively held many important positions in the club’s hierarchy and functioned as its President in the Rotary year 1985/86 and yet again in 2009/10. He was in Rotary for 46 years of very active and dedicated service.
May he rest in peace.
Dr. Locana Gunaratna
Kind and compassionate, she was a lifelong learner
GAMAGE ASOKA ROHINI NANAYAKKARA JAYASENA
Amma passed away just before her 93rd birthday in Colombo in the same family house her father had built, and where she had lived most of her life.
Since 2016 she had been mostly confined to a wheelchair, but till recently was able to have a decent quality of life, diligently looked after by a series of caregivers supervised by her only daughter Padmini, whose house she moved into after a fall. Padmini and her husband Anura did all they could to make her comfortable.
Her son Nalin, the youngest of her four children was on family medical leave to be with her when she passed away after a sudden but brief illness on February 4, Sri Lanka’s Independence Day. She was a young girl when in 1948 Sri Lanka gained independence.
Born in 1932 in Colombo to a middle-class family, she was raised in a setting of comfort and privilege, as she was the only child till she was ten years old when her brother was born.
Her parents Newton and Nobia (nee De Alwis) Nanayakkara were both from the south. Her father was a teacher and administrator at the Education Department, and her mother, a very affectionate and warm person, stayed home to raise the children.
She attended Holy Family Convent in Colombo and would recall how strict the Irish nuns were and that in those days even the April New Year was not a holiday as the country followed the British calendar.
She went on to the newly founded Peradeniya University to study Ceylon and Indian History. Subsequently she joined the teaching service and one of her first jobs was at a school in Udahamulla.
She married our father S.H. (Chandra) Jayasena in 1958.
Subsequently she joined St. Paul’s Milagiriya and worked there for over 25 years till her retirement in 1989, by which time she was the school’s Vice Principal.
During the troubled days of 1989 she decided to migrate to the United States to educate her son who had just completed his schooling. On her return, she worked at a private school for many years to keep herself occupied. At this time she completed a Master’s at the Buddhist and Pali University. She had embarked on a Master’s in education at the University of Manchester in England when she and my father were studying there, but never completed that degree.
I remember fondly how one afternoon she wanted to skip class and I, in a reversal of roles of parent and child, chided her and dropped her at the University.
In 2016, her son Mevan Siri died of heart failure aged 53. He had had many health challenges. At his funeral I asked how she was coping. Despite possessing a very tender and calm exterior, she was very stoic. “I am very sad,” she said, “but I did everything possible for him, when he was alive, so I am at peace with myself and have no regrets.”
Soon after, she had a fall and broke her hip. She never walked again, but for the last eight years received exceptional care at home. Gradually her memory started fading.
The last time I visited her in November 2024, she still remembered me and her grandchildren but spoke very little. I missed talking to her because I used to have long phone calls with her. Most of all I missed her wise counsel. Even to an adult, your mother can impart such wisdom and knowledge.
In 2023 her husband of 65 years passed away at the age of 91. She was a devout Buddhist who practised her faith in her day to day life with loving kindness (metta). She had no particular penchant for going to temples, but she loved her pilgrimage to India to visit the Buddhist holy sites.
A kind and compassionate person, she worked tirelessly for the betterment of her children and family. My siblings and I often wonder what our lives would have been like if not for her support and dedication. We could always count on her.
Not only was she kind and generous but had immense patience. Raising four children almost by herself as my father was mostly abroad, was no easy task, but she did it with class. She was a lesson for all of us parents.
She was charitable to those around her. Material things didn’t have much value to her and she gave away most of her possessions when she got older.
She always entertained whoever dropped by – nobody would ever be turned away if they showed up at lunchtime, as it was her family custom to feed anyone who showed up.
Her son Mevan, our father and her younger sister Dr. Damayanthi Seneviratne passed on before her. She is survived by her brother Dr. Nalin Nanayakkara and her children Padmini, Rohan and Nalin, and grandchildren Anuruddha, Duminda, Athulya, Seth and Ayomi.
We will all miss her very dearly.
May she attain the supreme bliss of Nirvana.
-Rohan Jayasena
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