Death of former Army Commander Gen. Rohan Daluwatte
Posted on August 28th, 2018

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Former Army Commander General Rohan Daluwatte passed away yesterday at the age of 77 after a brief illness, while being treated at the Army Hospital.He was born on May 9, 1941 in Ambalangoda and is an old boy of Ananda College, Colombo. He joined the Sri Lanka Army as a Cadet Officer in 1961 and served until 1998. He received military training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, United Kingdom.

I met him in 1986 in Diyathlawa cadet training camp where he was the commandant. During Athulathmudali’s time Israel sent a troop carrier to Sri Lanka with a Israeli soldier.

Colombo Dockyard was told to plan the assembly of  such bomb proof vehicles in Sri Lanka and we were asked to drive the vehicle to Diyathalwa with army escort for a trial .We were received by Brigadier Daluwatte at the camp and arranged a demonstration in Fox Hill .Vehicle had a 5mm gun mount and thick wide tyres ,Israely drive was skilled who managed to drive the vehicle almost vertical uphill.

Brigadier Daluwatte was so impressed .

He was a Gentleman and a Soldier

Vehicle was accepted by Army and we were to assemble in the dockyard .They were quite impressed with the gun mount which was quite versatile .

When it was kept in the yard and driver was away we managed to dismantle the gun mount and copied it .After that many gun mounts were built in the workshop.


 

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