Eddie Gray - a legend in his lifetime

by Sharm de Alwis

Had he been living today, Eddie Gray would have been 13 short of his century. He died last year in Australia, the country he chose in '71, not because he loved Sri Lanka less but to put the saddle on the right horse so that he would preserve his integrity and not be "attacked with a false smile, all aglow with evil curiosity."

He had a dash of the sun as well as the moonbeams in him. He was dapper, suave, elegant and debonair. Always in his signature cravat, the man never seemed to age like we who wither and so he had his unfair share of detractors of the typical SL style copied from the hierarchy of the Romans.

On me was bestowed the honour of dispatching his heavy luggage and therein lies another revealing facet of the man for I had handled the packing when I was in the pioneering company that dealt with such business. As I had left the Firm before the goods were shipped, he came in search of me and handed me my first assignment on my new venture. To serve the lowly was a Christ-like pith and sap he always had in full measure. He rode horse with the Prime Minister of the land, met with dignitaries and yet kept the common touch to help lowly folk like me.

His love for Sri Lanka never waned; he would be a frequent visitor and only last year he was to have come to my home with Ken de Joodt but the day's travel to Galle and back, had expended his energy and so he postponed the meeting for another day. That day, alas, never dawned.

He never dealt in hope but made things happen. If ever there was a problem, he was 'Mr Fixit'. It was Eddie Gray who canvassed and won for Ceylon the staging of the Asian Amateur Boxing Championship over more affluent countries. When the next obstacle, that of a proper venue had to be addressed, he used his persuasive powers for the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium to be built where the old trolley bus used to be.

He was also a Founder Member of the Duncan White Foundation from which athletes like Susanthika Jayasinghe have benefited financially every year. His many contributions to his Alma Mater have gone unsung.

Edward I Gray was an alumnus of Royal College whom the school exceedingly cherished. He had been in the Athletics contingent as a long distance runner, had captained both the Boxing and Rugby teams and scaled greater heights when he boxed for Ceylon in the '48 Olympics held in London.

Eddie, together with Albert Perera and Alex Obeysekera honed my Boxing skills at the YMCA and just as I was to win National honours, England frisked me away. I was 22 years.

Eddie was always in the eye of the storm of SL Boxing and now that Dion Gomes has taken the sport to the higher level of the 50s from which it broke the moorings and cast away, Eddie would have been ever ready to muscle in. Eddic Gray, bless his soul, lived graciously with "summer skies and plumes and figs and the grape-blood of emperors." Go forth, thou refined spirit and conquer the new world on the Ellysian plains.