{"id":149390,"date":"2025-05-05T08:34:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T15:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=149390"},"modified":"2025-05-05T08:34:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T15:34:18","slug":"w-s-de-silva-1949-2025-an-appreciation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/05\/05\/w-s-de-silva-1949-2025-an-appreciation\/","title":{"rendered":"W.S.de Silva ( 1949 – 2025) – An Appreciation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senaka Weeraratna<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

It is with great sadness I am sharing the news received a few hours ago that our colleague W. S. de Silva is no more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

His leg was amputated because of severe diabetes just a few days ago. He has succumbed finally to the complications arising from the amputation of his leg. He was 76 years old at the time of his passing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS entered Royal College in 1960. He came from Maris Stella Primary School. Very soon became a live wire in class. He was good in his studies. He used to be in the top layer of the class in studies alongside Sunil Bastian, Kekulawela and Ajita Wijesundere, among others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In retrospect it must be said that Ajita Wijesundere carried all the Class <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prizes from the Lower kindergarten class under Ms. Peiris to the final year class in the RPS under Mr. H. P.  Jayewardene (1959). The only other student who matched that excellent record was the redoubtable Diyanath Samarasinghe, later Professor of Psychiatry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1961, I befriended WS in the Sinhala Medium class, which had the likes of Anura Bandaranaike, Ranil Wickremasinghe, C.R. de Silva ( Bulla),Malik Samarawickreme, R. J. de Silva, R.S.I. de Silva, Pemraj Gonsalkorale, Vijitha Kuruwita, Neraj Perera, among others.  Our teachers were TDSA Dissanayake, Upali Attanayake, Rev. Kahaduwe Chandrajoti, and M.B.H. Wariyapola ( Geography teacher). I was appointed as the Class Monitor by T. D.S.A. Dissanayake after coming first in a General Knowledge contest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best two students in that class were W.S. de Silva and Vijitha Kuruwita. Both were seated next to each other. I have a  photo memory of the seating arrangements of that class and thereby able to recall to this day who was seated where in the class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was in that year 1961 in the Class 2E ( Class Master was RIT Alles) next to the Little Theatre ( which was managed by Mr. E. F. C. Pereira) that a famous debate took place. The topic of the debate was ‘Which system was more suitable – Socialism or Capitalism for Sri Lanka’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Moderator was Mr. Upali Attanayake. The participants in the debate were as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitalism <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vijitha Kuruwita ( leader)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anura Bandaranaike <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Socialism <\/p>\n\n\n\n

W.S. de Silva (leader)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C.R. de Silva <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senaka Weeraratna <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It attracted a fair amount of interest from other batches as well. Rev. Chandrajoti also attended the debate as a guest. W. S.de Silva delivered a memorable speech on the merits of Socialism. Anura Bandaranaike tilted for capitalism despite her mother Mrs. Srima Bandaranaike( being the Prime Minister) pursuing a policy of Socialism for the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

W.S. had a famous brother called W.P. (Padmal) de Silva, (22nd August, 1944\u201325th November, 2007) who later became a Professor of Psychology at the University of Peradeniya. He also taught at King’s College, London. He won many prizes at the school prize giving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our paths went in different directions after 1961. W.S. also played in House Cricket . He was a fast bowler. Played in Lunch Interval Cricket with Gusto. He was a terror with his fast bowling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS was a member of the Senior School Sinhala Debating team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WS became the Hostel Head Prefect in the third term of 1967 succeeding  KK Amaradasa.  He was also appointed a  School Prefect the following year in 1968. School prefectship was a honour bestowed on only about 10 students per year and WS had that honour . A title which resonated in mercantile firms at the time. They preferred the high achievers in school including perfects <\/p>\n\n\n\n

when recruiting junior executives immediately after school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In adult life W.S. de Silva became a teacher of English and the Principal, while based in Sri Lanka, of an International School i.e., York international Schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was also an Editor of several volumes of a book carrying biographical sketches of notable people in Sri Lanka’s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May he attain the Supreme Bliss of Nirvana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senaka Weeraratna<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senaka Weeraratna It is with great sadness I am sharing the news received a few hours ago that our colleague W. S. de Silva is no more.  His leg was amputated because of severe diabetes just a few days ago. He has succumbed finally to the complications arising from the amputation of his leg. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-senaka-weeraratna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}