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Wednesday, May 6, 2026

REMEMBRANCE DAY 30th MAY 2026

REMEMBRANCE DAY 30th MAY 2026

Just to remind you that the special day, when each year we recall with fondness and gratitude, our dear departed colleagues, will be with us soon.

Please send your contributions to me by email or post a comment on this post, and I shall add them to it, so it grows incrementally rather than posting a separate post for each contributor.

I trust this meets with your approval.

Mahendra "Speedy" Gonsalkorale. Blog Admin.




Departed list: updated 01.04.2026

1.        S.R. (Sunil) de Silva
2.       A.R.K. (Russel) Paul
3.       Dawne de Silva Paul
4.       Bernard Randeniya
5.       Niriella Chandrasiri
6.       V. Ganeson
7.       L.G.D.K. (Irwin) Herath
8.       V.Kunasingham
9.       B.L. Perera
10.    B. Somasunderam
11.    N.C.D.M. Gunasekara
12.    K.Sunderampillai
13.    Tudor Wickramarachchi
14.    K.N. (Kiththa) Wimalaratne
15.    Anna Ponnambalam Sathiagnanan
16.    A. Satchitananda
17.    N. Sivakumar
18.    T.A. Dayaratne
19.    Sidath Jayanetti
20.    N. Balakumar
21.    Kamali Nimalasuriya de Silva 14.4.2013
22.    K. Sri Kantha – 15.9.13
23.    P. Lucien Perera – 14.6.14
24.    Priya (Gunaratna) de Silva – 8.10.14
25.    Arul (Sivaguru) Balasubramaniam – 15.10.14
26.    W. Punsiri Fernando – 15.11.14
27.    W. Rajasooriyar – 6.1.15
28.    M.P.C. Jaimon – 26.3.15
29.    S. Vedavanam – 1.7.15
30.    Farouk Mahmoud – 27.11.16
31.    Janaka (JG) Wijetunga – 13.03.17
32.    Manohari Navaratnarajah Shanmuganathan – 22.03.17
33.    D. B. Mahendra Collure – 31.05.17
34.    Suren Iyer – 13.10.17
35.    Sardha Jayatilake Wijeratne (Passed away 3 years ago)
36.    S. Sarvananda – 26.05.18
37.   Sue Ratnavel Gunsegaram - 16.7.2018
38.   Boyd Tilak  (Chula)  Batuwitage  - 10.12.2018
39.   Ranjit Kuruppu  9.4. 2019
40.   C.D. (Desmond) Gunatilake  2.6.2019
41.   Razaque Ahamat  7.7.2109
42.   H.N.Wickremasinghe  8.11.2019
43.  Kamini (Goonewardena) Ferdinando 31.1.2021 
44. Lucky Weerasooriya jan 2022
45. Zita Perera Subasinghe 5.10.2022
46. V.P.H Rajapakse 15.10.2022
47. Mangalam Sabaratnam Krishnadasan 22.12.2022
48. Cecil Saverimuttu 26.1.2023
49. J. C. Fernando 18.04.2023
50. Navam Chinniah 03.082023
51. Philomena P Thiraviam 6.9.2023
52 Subramanium, Indrani Anthonypillai Oct 2023
53. Asoka Wijeyekoon Dec 22nd,2023
54. Sriani Basnayake Dissanayake 15.02.2024
55. R Wickremaskeran 23.4.2024
56. Bertram Nanayakkara 24.05.2024
57. Gwendoline (Perera) Herath 28.06.2024
58. Primrose (Jayasinghe) Wijeyewardhena 11.08.2024
59. Rita M G Silva (Alwis) Nov 2024
60. Lakshman Abeyagunawardene. 14.12.2024
61. Revelion (Revo) Drahaman 20.12.2024
62. Raveendra (Ravi) Nadaraja. 19.05.2025
63. Lareef Idroos. 01.09.2025
64. Padmini (Pathmani) Goonewardena August 2025
65. Kumar Balachandra. January 2026


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4 comments:

  1. SanathMay 7, 2026 at 2:07 AM

    Lucky Weerasooriya , DoB 26th March 1940, DoD 15th January 2022
    Lucky's younger brother Srilal, who was the Commander of the Sri Lanka Army, invited me for the ceremony when Lucky's ashes were interred at their family burial spot at Kanatte. His three sons were also present and I was invited to deliver a short speech as well
    In 1989, when I was on a family holiday in the US, we visited Lucky at his beautiful home in Orlando Florida. His house was adjacent to a creek and we went boating as well. Later I caught some crabs and Lucky's wife Ruwani ,prepared an excellent dinner consisting of string hoppers and crab curry. When we were leaving, I was given a visitor's book to make an entry. I noticed that the last entry had been made by Dr Alahendra (few batches our senior), and he and his wife were killed in a RTA when they were driving back home from Lucky's residence. With some trepidation , I wrote on a fresh page, as we were driving back to the airport soon after!

    ReplyDelete
  2. SanathMay 7, 2026 at 2:50 AM

    Russell Paul was two years my senior at RC, but we were in the same batch in Medical School. He hailed from a very illustrious family; his father was the Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Peradeniya University, as well as the Dean and acting Vice-Chancellor. Russell had two younger brothers, Hillary and Keith, both of whom were excellent sportsmen. Hillary excelled in athletics (Hop Step and Jump and the Long Jump while Keith captained the Rugby team). He had a sister as well, who was kidnapped and raped at the Eye Hospital Junction, by a notorious thug named Gonawela Sunil. Although he was prosecuted and Jailed, he was given a presidential pardon by the President JRJ.
    Russell excelled at the Freshers meet in athletics, by winning a few events, when we entered the University. As mentioned by me earlier we were co-interne House Officers with Professor K Rajasuriya and we were room mates at the Main Quarters , for one year. I remember him making ham out of a pork shop for Christmas in 1967.
    Later he decided to emigrate to the US. When I asked him why he was doing so , his reply was that although his father was a senior academic, they lived in an apartment at Duplication Road and he did not wish for that to happen to him as well, although Dawn was quite affluent. Later ,whenever he visited Sri Lanka, we used to meet.
    They had a daughter and a son. Unfortunately the daughter was brain-damaged at birth and developed Hyperactive Attention Deficit Disorder (HADD). Russell specialised in GI oncology and worked in Philadelphia. I was planning to visit them during our trip to the US, but unfortunately could not accomplish it. I spoke to him last over the phone from Indra Anandasabhapathy's house in Staten Island New York
    Later Dawn had developed ankylosing spondylitis and had been confined to bed. They had employed a housemaid to look after the daughter. Unfortunately after the maid passed away, Russell was saddled with the problem of looking after two differently abled family members. When he could not provide proper care any more, he decided to end it all by committing three murders and a suicide. After setting up IV infusions, he injected a lethal drug. Knowing Russell, he would have calculated the lethal dose up to the second decimal point. The coroner did not publicise the name of the drug thinking that others may get ideas.
    Manik de Silva, the journalist, wrote a beautiful editorial headlined " Count Your Blessings", implying that the tragedy may not have happened if they did not emigrate, because of the extended family support found locally.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dr Nihal D AmerasekeraMay 8, 2026 at 1:07 AM

    Hello Sanath
    Thank you for those wonderful and also sad memories of our dear friends which you have written with that characteristic detail bringing those years to life again. We remember Lucky W, Russell and Dawn and feel thankful they were in our lives in those glorious youthful years.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMay 8, 2026 at 2:03 AM

    From Mahendra. Thank you Sanath. I am away at the moment but when I get back early next week, I shall insert your comments to the main body

    ReplyDelete

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