OBITUARY
From 10/01/1940
To 09/12/2018
Boyd, better known as “Batu” to his friends and “Chula” to his family, was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka where he spent his formative years living in Park Avenue near Campbell Park, Borella. He was the youngest of six brothers and identical twin to Brian Batuwitage. Boyd was schooled at Royal College where he was a keen cricketer. He went on to study medicine at Colombo Medical School in 1962, graduating with the batch of 1967. Soon after graduating he joined his brother, the late Dr Tissa Batuwitage, in Matale as a general practitioner. In 1972, he married Geetha Shriyani Wickramaratchi in Kandy and continued to work in Matale before moving to the United Kingdom in the mid seventies. He undertook further training in geriatrics and psychiatry in the UK before turning to his true passion of general practice. He was appointed Principal General Practitioner at the Treharris Primary Care Health Centre in South Wales and served the local community for over 20 years. Boyd had three children, Surakshi, Larukshi and Thushila who went on to have respective careers in psychology, finance and medicine (anaesthesia). With his support, his wife Shriyani completed postgraduate qualifications, to become a ceramic artist and teacher.
Boyd enjoyed watching cricket and snooker. He was a great fan of David Attenborough, watching his programmes and collecting his books. He was an avid reader and enjoyed travelling, which he did for many years with his wife before his illness progressed. He was a committed Buddhist and undertook several pilgrimages to Buddhist sites around the world. Boyd was keen to help those in need, he supported several charities and sponsored young children from deprived parts of Sri Lanka, enabling them to have the opportunity to attend university. He retired from general practice and moved to Guildford in 2012 where he enjoyed spending time with his family, especially his grandchildren, Aishwari, Tejini, Kashika and Aanya.
Boyd peacefully passed away from Alzheimer’s Dementia surrounded by his loving family on the 9th of December 2018. Boyd will be deeply missed. He was a gentle, kind and private man, whose patience and compassion was greatly respected amongst his family and close friends.
Sent by his loving son with this message:
I’ve also attached details of the date of the funeral service and some pictures of my father.
Many thanks
Dr Bisanth Thushila Batuwitage
Dr Bisanth Batuwitage
Consultant Anaesthetist
Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Tel: +44 (0)7985196994
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| Grandchildren |
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| The family |
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| Twins (Batu on the left) |
I am sorry to miss him whom,I have seen very often in and around Punch-Borella,prior to entering the Medical Faculty.My initial guess is right,our Batu had a twin.I am sure our batch mates should be able to recognise the Batu they have seen in the block-days and beyond.I,am also glad that his offsprings have done well in their studies.
ReplyDeleteWish him a very happy afterlife,before entering the realm of Nirvana.
Thank you to Bisanth for giving us that story of the life of Boyd Tilak who was with us in medical school. His photo does bring him back to life. I was so pleased to see him in March and July 2017.
ReplyDeleteThe Batuwitages lived in the shadow of All Saints Church Borella and close to Campbell Park. His brothers went to Wesley College and I remember the eldest, AP, who played cricket for the school in 1953. I do remember the twin brother too.
May he reach the Ultimate Bliss of Nirvana.
While endorsing the above comments from Sumathi and ND, I wish to add that I am grateful to Batu's son Dr. Bishant for keeping up this dialogue even at this time of great stress to the family. I find that it is so much easier to deal with any viewer who is computer savvy. It took only a few hours for Bishant to send me the Funeral Invite in jpg format which he had sent as a pdf document earlier.
ReplyDeleteI would also invite my colleagues to insert your personal condolences as comments under the obituary or notification of any sad news. I have tried to cut and paste all the messages that I have received from colleagues, but as some of you would realise, I have not been able to publish all, especially when they keep coming to me as direct e-mails even after a few days of the initial notification
It is so sad to read this. Bisanth, it is so good of you to talk of your dear father and our batch mate they way you have done. I only feel sad that never upon this earth will we see him again. And it makes me think too that this sort of write up is what we'll get ourselves. It makes me want to do some good to anyone while I can. We had this chance and we'll move on and others will take our place and the process will go on. It just makes one stop and think. Thanks
ReplyDeletefrom Zita
My deepest sympathies to the members of his family. I last met him at our mini re-union in London during the summer of 2017. He was not much communicative and later his wife told me about his medical problem. He was senior to me at RC but I caught him up to enter the Colombo Medical Faculty together in 1962. I heard that once he had cut school and when confronted by one of his teachers during school hours a long distance away from the school, he had pretended that he was the twin brother and got away ! May he attain the ultimate bliss of Nirvana
ReplyDeleteSanath
Dear Bishanth,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sending us the details of your father's life. I remember him in Medical College as being one of the 'quiet' guys! I'm sorry that he suffered from dementia, but relieved to hear that his end was peaceful. I last met him and your mother when we had our reunion in Habarana, Sri Lanka. Please convey my sympathies to your mother and the rest of your family.
Srianee Dias