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Sumith Wickramasinghe was born on the island of Ceylon as it was known in 1935. His illustrious parents were Wickremarachige Subatheris and Somawathie Wickramasinghe - both his parents were Headteachers in two different village schools - Sumith's mother was Principal of Ambaraluwa Maha Vidyalaya in the village in Weliweriya in the Gampaha district. To this day Sri Lanka enjoys one of the highest literacy rates in Asia - the key message is education, education, education and Sumith's parents played a pivotal role in Ambaraluwa - their students went on to greater heights. This ethos on learning and the value of education came from the hearts of Subatheris and Somawathie Wickramasinghe, they would certainly have agreed that 'knowledge is power. ' As a result of their status as Headteachers they were accorded the highest respect in Buddhist circles in the village. Teachers were held in such high regard because of the value of education. The schools in Ambaraluwa were absolutely vital, the lifeblood of the village and Headteachers were very powerful people in the life of the village they would be today's community leaders - Ambaraluwa hasn't changed much over the years and the family house still stands off the main road.
Sumith's surviving brother Daya lives there. Dayanand a Wickramasinghe is also known as Post Mahaththaya in the village of Ambaraluwa, Sumith was known as Punch Mahaththaya. Sumith grew up in Ambaraluwa, he was one of five children and his only surviving brother Daya lives in the sprawling family home in the village of Ambaraluwa - his nephews and nieces still live in houses built on adjoining family land. Ambaraluwa is off the beaten track in the island of Sri Lanka, the village is a very quiet area, the pace of life is slow certainly much slower than the commercial capital of Colombo - you find the usual shops and boutiques on the main road in Ambaraluwa - selling everything from Coca Cola to bananas.
Sumith attended the local school during World War II. The island became the Republic of Sri Lanka in 1972. Sri Lanka is situated at the tip of India. Ceylon was going through a transfer of power when Sumith was born in 1935. The British were ruling Ceylon at the time and the Governor and Commander-in-Chief was Sir Reginald Edward Stubbs. The cry for freedom and independence grew stronger in the 1930 s and the Ceylon National Congress were calling for responsible government for the people of Ceylon, others followed the Gandhian ideal of 'swaraj, ' advocating more forceful expressions of opposition to British rule.
D. B. Jayatilake, D. S. Senanayake, Ponnambalam Arunachalem, Ponnambalam Ramana than, A. E.
Goonesingha, C. E. Corea, Victor Corea (father of Sumith's good friend Charlie Corea), E. W. Perera, and the 'younger generation' of Ceylonese politicians -G. G.
Ponnambalam, S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, Dudley Senanayake, J. R.
Jayewardene were among those who were deeply involved in the political struggle at the time. These politicians were fearless and spoke out for the rights and freedoms for their people. It was partly to acknowledge this and to encourage the freedom movement that Mahatma Gandhi arrived in Ceylon on his first and last visit in November 1927 - Gandhi travelled the length and breadth of the island - from Jaffna to China - promoting his message of non-violence. He even visited Sumith's alma mater, Ananda College and spoke to the teachers and students. Gandhi also visited Kalutara - Sumith and Prema Wickramasinghe were to make Kalutara their home. The people of Kalutara raised Rs. 1, 695. 85 for Mahatma Gandhi's fund during that historic visit in November 1927.
The Ceylonese looked to him as a role model and embraced his concept of 'swaraj. 's sumith's parents longed for a free Ceylon and the goings on in Colombo were the talk of the verandahs in Ambaraluwa. They were avid readers and were fully aware of current affairs in Ceylon. They talked about the visit of Mahatma Gandhi to Ceylon even in the village of Ambaraluwa. The introduction of universal suffrage in 1931 with the general elections on the island in 1931 led to the formation of the first State Council in Ceylon from 1931 - 1935. Sumith Wickramasinghe was born into this world of change - by the time he joined Ananda College as a young student, Ceylon would win her freedom in 1948 through independence on the 4 th of February 1948. Sumith was 13 years old at the time.
These were heady days on the island of Ceylon generating great excitement and discussion on the verandahs and the streets in the villages, towns and cities. Sumith and the Wickramasinghe family in the village of Ambaraluwa in Gampaha had to endure World War II as Ceylon became a central point for Lord Louis Mountbatten and SEAC. Lord Mountbatten made Colombo his headquarters. War was declared in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland on the 1 st of September 1939. With the Japanese partnering the axis with Germany and Italy, Ceylon soon came under threat of war. Sumith was only 4 years old when war was declared - although he did not live in Colombo during the Japanese raids on Colombo in the 1940 s his family too lived in fear of bombings.
Gampaha was never bombed although the Japanese Zero bombers and the kamikaze e pilots created havoc in the city of Colombo, the the natural port of Trincomalee and other parts of the island. The Battle for Ceylon raged in 1942 when Sumith was 7 years old. He was sheltered in the village of Ambaraluwa - away from the air raid sirens going on in Colombo in 1942. Wave after wave of Japanese zero bombers flew over the island - bombing Colombo and other parts of the country. People lived in fear of a Japanese invasion. Ceylon was of strategic interest to the Imperial Japanese Army.
If they captured Ceylon it would have given them a firm foothold in South Asia with access to South India and other parts of the region. The writer Aryadasa Ratnasinghe recalled the raid on Colombo on 5 th April 1942 - 'The first air raid on Colombo took place on Easter Sunday (April 5, 1942) at 7. 30 a. m. , when Japanese aircraft flew in close formation over Colombo and dropped bombs at different places. The air battle lasted for nearly half an hour.
The Allied forces, warned of the danger, were able to shoot down some of the enemy aircraft which fell on land and sea. Among those shot down, one fell near St. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia, one closer to the Bellanwila paddy fields, one near Pita Kotte, one on the race-course, one near Horny and one on the Galle Face Green. One bomb fell off the target and damaged the Mulleriyawa Mental Hospital killing some inmates. It appears that the pilot had mistaken the buildings to be Echelon barracks sheltering the Allied troops. One fell near the Maradana railway station partly damaging it.
There were many deaths and more casualties and most of them were civilians. To prevent bombs falling on hospitals, it was decided to have a large red cross painted on the roofs for the guidance of the pilots. 's sumith arrived in the big city at the end of World War II. Ceylon was recovering from a very stressful time. The entry of the United States had into the arena of war had sealed the fate of the Japanese forces and indeed Adolf Hitler in Germany. What happened at Pearl Harbour had a huge impact on Ceylon. The Ceylonese almost had to shelve their plans for independence during the war years as Ceylon became the staging post for South Asia.
Lord Mountbatten headed wartime operations and Ceylon became one gigantic military base from Colombo to Kandy. Sumith attended Ananda Shasthralaya Vidyalaya in Kotte. He was 12 years old at the time. Sumith was boarded with a relative. It was hard and he missed life in Ambaraluwa but his parents had taken the tough decision to send him to the big city in order for him to achieve higher levels where his secondary education was concerned. Sumith entered Colombo at a time of great change. 1947 was very much a year of transition.
The British had decided to give in to Ceylon's demand for independence - India had won her demands and Mahatma Gandhi's aim and objectives were achieved in such an amazing manner. There was collective joy in South Asia and Sumith was very much a part and parcel of this wave of euphoria in Colombo - even in the schools, the lanes, the shops wherever you went people were talking about the changes about to take place in the island of Ceylon. Sumith spent his formative years at one of Ceylon's leading educational institutions - Ananda College in Colombo where he excelled in his academic studies as well as sports such as Volleyball and Athletics - he achieved champion status and was regarded as an expert. His contemporaries were political luminaries like Dharmadasa Banda M. P. who was a Minister in President J.
R. Jayewardene's Government and subsequently in the Ranasinghe Premadasa Adminstration and the D. B. Wijeytunga Administration. Dharmadasa Banda was his best friend and they both left Ananda College for Zahira College where they spent a brief period. Sumith was going through his rebellious period in his teenage years.
In terms of a future career Sumith felt his heart was in the medical profession. He joined Suleiman Hospital in Colombo as an X-Ray Technician Apprentice. He learnt the tools of the trade moving on to Philip Memorial Hospital in Kalutara. Now the town of Kalutara is steeped in history - it has a beautiful temple and the invading Portugese forces who were in Ceylon in the 15 th Century built a major fort in Kalutara. Sumith started his business activities by launching a motor repair garage called 'Daya Motors, ' named after his son Daya Wickramasinghe.
The garage they say is still in existence in Kalutara, still bearing the same name. Sumith always had an entrepreneurial streak in him, this garage in Kalutara was one of many business start-ups in his lifetime. It was only later on in his life that Wicked found his true vocation when he joined the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation as a Motor Assessor. A chance meeting on a Ceylon Government Railways train with the attractive Premalatha Gurusinghe of the formidable Gurusinghe Clan who hail from Galle. Prema's father was a distinguished writer who wrote for the 'Ceylon Gazette' and was also employed as an administrator. The Gurusinghe Family have branched out to various parts of the world and are even found in the United Kingdom and in Australia.
They are a close knit, powerful family and Prema belonged to this world. The couple were married in 1959 and moved to Kalutara. Sumith worked at the Philip Memorial Hospital in Colombo and worked with the well known Dr. Christopher Fernando. Sumith still felt the call of the health world and decided to branch out on his own - for a while he had his own Clinic and then his own Pharmacy. The Wickramasinghe Family moved to the outskirts of Colombo to Mount Lavinia with its famed beach and the legendary Mount Lavinia Hotel.
Sumith, they resided at 5 th Lane in Ratmalana, close by to the old Ratmalana Airport. This airport was at one time Ceylon's main terminal with the Dakota DC- 4 planes and the Lockheed 749...
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