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| Tuesday, 16 March 2004 |
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George E.de Silva - champion of the poor by Brian Turner, Canada The fifty-fourth death anniversary of the late George Edmond de Silva fell on March 12. He was the third son of a famous Ayurveda physician who migrated to N'Eliya in the late 1870s to set up a lucrative practice at N.Eliya.
He owned the 'Orange Tree House' in Hill Street, N'Eliya at the foot of the Pidurutalagala Mountain. On March 12th, 1950 he died from a stroke followed by two heart attacks he got while playing golf at the Peradeniya golf course with an Englishman. He was 71 years old at the time of his sudden death. He was a very keen golf and tennis player. His brother Timothy de Silva was the first Ceylonese golf champion. George E de Silva was a very prominent politician in the Donoughmore era of Sri Lanka history. He was a tall, sturdily built man, handsome and jovial with a constant smile and he instantly attracted the attention and friendship of all whom he met. He began his career as a journalist. He was a reporter to the 'Ceylon Independent' and later worked as a staff journalist at the 'Times of Ceylon'. He had been a brilliant journalist in his era having obtained many news scoops through his contacts. He had a brilliant command of the English language having been tutored by the famous European scholar at N'Eliya Henry Young. He entered the Law College, from the then famous Lorens Tutory in Colombo. He passed the Proctors Final Exam; and went to Kandy in 1900s and within a very short period established a very lucrative practice as a criminal lawyer. Two of his brothers, Timothy and Gregory, were also lawyers of repute. The Kandy Bar at the time was dominated by many famous Dutch Burgher lawyers and they resented the entry of George to the Kandy Bar. On the first day of his entry to the Court House, all other lawyers staged a walkout, but the English Magistrate remained and George won his first case. Subsequently he found it difficult to get a chair in the Court House and he got his valet to bring a chair. In Kandy he met his future partner in life Miss Agnes Nell, the only daughter of Paul Nell, who was the Provincial Engineer. George was a very keen ballroom dancer and quite adept in dancing and singing. He met Agnes at many of these parties and subsequently married her. She was a very kind hearted lady who championed the franchise for females in the 1930s. He entered politics as a Ward Member of the Kandy Municipal Council and in 1931 he was elected as the Member of the State Council seat for the Central Province, which extended from Dambulla to N'Eliya. He defeated Sir Gerard Wijekoon and Albert Godamunne, two well-known figures in Sri Lankan politics. He was thereafter re-elected as the Member for kandy for 16 years. He was Minister of Health for five years and the first Minister of Fisheries and Industries in the first Parliament of Sri Lanka. He was also a Member of the War Cabinet from 1942. The Cabinet at that time comprised only a dozen ministers. The race riots that started in 1915 at Gampola, spread to Kandy the next day and within a few days it spread to all parts of the country except the North and East. Many Sinhalese national leaders and professional men from many areas were jailed and some were tried by the "kangaroo courts" held by British planters, who were Justices of Peace. The Marshal Law was enacted and the bringing of Punjabi troops from India who harassed the Sinhala people, irked George very much, and it proved to be the watershed in George's political development. He fought against the injustices meted out to the Sinhala people by governor Chalmer and went to England along with E. W. Perera and had the Governor recalled by making convincing representations to the Colonial Secretary. He fought valiantly to save the lives of young Hewavitharana and D. G. Pedris. He championed the peasantry who under the yoke of the feudal lords had to perform compulsory Rajakariya. The Rajakariya system was abolished and the depressed class citizens got there due place in society. He established 250 cottage hospitals in rural areas, and got malaria eradicated by the introduction of DDT spraying. He established the first Ayurveda hospital and give a great deal of encouragement for the development of Ayurveda. He came from a generation of famous Ayurveda physicians of Galle and Matara. J. R. Jayawardene, who was a close political associate of George, in a foreword to the book, 'Our George' authored by Dr. Jane Russel, an Oxford scholar, has stated thus: "I worked with George E. de Silva during the war years in the Ceylon National Congress and came to know him as a patriot and an untiring worker for social and political reform. His death in 1950 deprived Sri Lanka of a man of progressive thinking for it must be remembered that together with A. E. Goonesinghe, George E. de Silva had proposed the introduction of universal franchise in 1931 and supported 'Freedom' in 1943. George was essentially a man of the people. Although he became the Minister of Health from 1942-1947 and President of the Ceylon National Congress on several occasions. He was a man who never lost the ability to feel the articulate, heartfelt desires of the common man. His championship of the cause of Ayurveda and rural hospitals proved this. I welcome the writing of the biography of this great son of Sri Lanka. J. R. Jayawardene, President of Sri Lanka, 15th December, 1978. President when George E. de Silva, was the President of the Ceylon National Congress in 1943, J. R. Jayawardene and Dudley Senanayake were the Joint Secretaries. G. C. S. Corea, E. A. P. Wijeratne, A. F. Molamure, P. de S. Kularatne, Dr. S. A. Wickremesinghe, were very prominent congress leaders in this era. George E. de Silva died a poor man. His tea estate was sold on a mortgage and he was at one time the co-owner of the biggest coconut plantation in Sri Lanka. He had built a palatial bungalow in Kandy at Katukelle, St. George's, overlooking the Hantane and Hunnasgiriya hills. All the wealth he amassed as a very successful lawyer with the best criminal practice in the Kandyan area Magistrates courts was spent on his political campaigns. He gave a helping hand to many poor students, and his supporters during illnesses. He looked after his enemies in time of distress and won them round. Whenever he got news that one of his enemies was ill he would visit him with a carload of gifts and alleviate his suffering. His worst enemy in the Kandy Bar was the late Cox Sproule, the famous lawyer. He had been arrested and detained at Diyatalawa camp during the Martial Law era. He was to be shot dead like many other prominent Ceylonese in that era that spoke against the military excesses of the British Raj. His wife came and fell at George's feet and appealed to him to save his life, and George being an Anglican was able to save him through his influence with the British rulers. It was a memorable day for George to take the risk of travelling all the way to the Diyatalawa camp and get his life long enemy released from certain death. The late N. E. Weerasooriya QC the famous Kandyan lawyer, friend of George, writing on George commented, "But then George E. de Silva's career was unique not only for his professional success and his political career, but also because he was the symbol of a new Ceylon, despising and attempting to overcome caste oppression, mindful of the Buddha's message: "It is not by birth that When you enter Kandy town, one could see the statue erected by the people of Kandy at the George E. de Silva park, as a fitting end to the selfless service he rendered to the Kandyans over five decades. The words engraved are: "In this moment as in the hearts of the people for whom he lived and laboured, the name of George E. de Silva is enshrined. Born: 8.6.1879. Died: 12.3.1950. |
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