General Nalin Seneviratne:

Tribute to a brave son of our soil

General Denis Perera

I write this tribute to my friend and colleague Nalin Seneviratne on his 78th Birth Anniversary which falls today. We have been close colleagues and friends since 1954, when he joined the Ceylon Engineers where I had been since 1952.

I make reference to some regimental history for the benefit of the younger generation of engineer officers of the Army who may not know it all due to their participating in anti LTTE operations.

We had both graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the Royal College of Military Engineering, prior to our posting to the Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) Engineers.

The unit had been raised in November 1951 at Diyatalawa under the command of Major (later Brigadier) Douglas Ramanayake. He was assisted by Captains Kandiah Rajayogan, Ronald H. Perera, Thompson Withane and Sam de Silva (all Colonels later). The other Senior Ranks were Sgt. Major Andriesz; Quarter master Wendt. S/Sgts. Sourjah, Tirunavakarasu; Sgts. Moldrich, Fernando and Gunewardena and Cpls. Dharmalingam, Selvam, Jeyasingham, Weerasingham, and Van Hoizen. These officers and the rankers had service during World War II and were selected to be the nucleus of the new Engineer Unit. I am mentioning this to emphasize the ethnic and religious mix of the initial intakes into the new Ceylon Army and the harmonious relationships prevailing at the time with no one bothering about his neighbour’s ethnicity or religion until some unscrupulous politicians exploited these differences and caused the problems we have had to face since then.

One year after I joined the Engineers, Manthi Ranawaka who had graduated from Sandhurst and Chatham came in. He was followed a year later by Nalin Seneviratne who had graduated from Sandhurst and Chatham. We were a highly motivated and united group of officers and other ranks ably guided by our seniors.

Manthi, Nalin and I were six footers, so the Commanding Officer who was 5’10” took pride in us following him on parade especially on Independence Day.

The three of us were closely knit and ensured that the unit was of a high standard and the young recruits who had joined recently, enthusiastically followed us. We also played rugger for the unit; participated in the unbeatable Tug-of-War team and in all respects won the affection of our soldiers - many of them now retired, turned up from distant places for Nalin’s funeral and spoke to me of the “good old days”. What I am trying to emphasize is the bond of unity and friendship between officers and soldiers which I hope is the case in modern times too.

At the time Nalin joined us, the unit was engaged in constructing a 1,000 yard (now metres) rifle range at Panaluwa in close proximity of Panagoda. Nalin revelled in this project, acquitted creditably as an operator of heavy machinery and took to the project with great enthusiasm. He was particularly keen on this type of work and continued to be interested in engineering projects which the unit undertook under the National Development Programs of the Government at various times.

The Government employed Army Engineers in the Mahaweli project too until foreign contractors came in. The list of engineering projects undertaken by the Army Engineers is over 300.

His enthusiasm in this respect qualified him to be the Commanding Officer of the Field Engineers and later Director of Engineering. During his tenure the Corps of Engineers expanded and performed well.

Nalin was a highly respected officer as evident from the attendance of retired officers at his funeral.

On a personal note I have to state that Nalin and I remained good friends since we first met. He was my Bestman at my wedding over 50 years ago. His only daughter married my son. I was posted as High Commissioner to Australia during his tenure as Commander of the Army, but I know he had a trying time with the prevailing LTTE problem and the Indian intervention. He played an important role in the counter LTTE operations especially in the Vadamarachchi operation without fanfare and publicity. May he rest in peace and attain Nibbana.