Former CDN Editor passes away

Ajith Samaranayake

COLOMBO: The death has occurred in Oxford, England of Jayantha Padmanabha, a former Editor of the Daily News and a distinguished scholar of English. He was 91 years.

Padmanabha was editor between H. A. J. Hulugalle and Cecil Graham.

A graduate of Oxford University, he belonged more to the university common room than the hurly burly of a news room but he is widely credited with enhancing the literary and cultural value of the newspaper. In his biography of D. R. Wijewardene, H. A. Hulugalle has written: "Jayantha Padmanabha came to the Daily News from Oxford and his work helped to raise the quality of writing in the paper.

His prose was the envy of his colleagues and his knowledge and love of the arts singled him out among a crowd of hard-bitten pen-pushers."

On the occasion of the golden jubilee of the Daily News, Padmanabha was invited to send a message. He was then the Dean of the Faculty and Head of the Department of English of the University College of Cape Coast, Ghana.

He wrote with characteristic modesty:

"I was privileged to work at Lake House for nearly 20 years and witness many exciting and notable changes in the history of the newspaper and the country."

Jayantha Padmanabha belonged to a courtly tradition of letters and deserting the news room returned to his true home in academia. His death marks the end of perhaps the oldest editor of a national newspaper in this country although he was for long separated from his homeland.