A Tribute to Professor C.C. De Silva — Sri Lanka’s First Professor of Paediatrics. My Father, My Role Model and My Mentor

9 March 2024 12:00 am Views - 1346

Among my happiest memories are going to the Lady Ridgeway Hospital every Christmas morning with my parents to distribute gifts to the staff and children in his ward. The children adored him, some would come running and hug him as he entered. He was a hard taskmaster and his house officers and nurses would get calls as early as 4.00am from him, but they all loved him.

Now in the twilight zone, as each day dawns, it seems I miss my father more;   he was a compassionate man, brilliant as a doctor and writer. It was none other than my father who instilled the love of reading and writing in me, which still remain as my favourite pastimes.  
He was born on February 25, 1904, and was four years old when his father, the late Dr W.H. De Silva passed away. The latter was the first Ceylonese to qualify as a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in Ophthalmology, and was previously an undergraduate at the University of Aberdeen. He rendered his services free-of-charge to the Government of Ceylon, and organised the first Eye and ENT Clinic at the Grenier Hospital in Colombo. My son entered Aberdeen University in 1987, a hundred years after my grandfather, and I was proud to see his name on the panels in the University. After my grandfather’s early death, my father spent most of his time at Alfred House with his grandmother, the late Lady Catherine De Soysa, the widow of the late Charles Henry. His first school was Bishops College (my Alma Mater) and later schooled at St Thomas College (like his father and grandfather) and excelled academically, His choice of profession was Medicine, after completing his first year in Ceylon he went to University College London to complete his degree. Excelling there too, he qualified and returned to the island, a most eligible bachelor. He married and returned to the UK to further his higher education, and later on started his own private practice in Dehiwela, whilst residing in Mount Lavinia (where I was born). He always told me that my birth brought him luck, which thrilled me no end then, as it still does.  
Unfortunately, his work left him little time to spend with us, and my happiest moments were when he was at home and able to relate tales to us mostly about his grandfather, Charles Henry and family legends about him. My father always awoke at 4.00am as he said his brain worked best at that time. He gave up his most lucrative private practice to be Sri Lanka’s first Professor of Paediatrics, a chair which was created for him. This enabled him to do more for the underprivileged and also more research – he was the first to start using king coconut water for saline and also to discover Thalassaemia in Sri Lanka. He had a vast library, and donated part of it to the Jaffna Library after it was torched. He had a very kind heart, and never turned away anyone who came to him for help. Whenever he travelled abroad, during my teen years and later on, my mother and I accompanied him. We stayed with his peers in his field and I’m so appreciative of those experiences in the UK and all parts of Europe and Scandinavia. We were taken to cathedrals, historic locations, the theatre and ballet performances which have certainly helped me to appreciate other cultures and traditions, and grow up devoid of prejudice against other races and religions.
Among my happiest memories are going to the Lady Ridgeway Hospital every Christmas morning with my parents to distribute gifts to the staff and children in his ward. The children adored him, some would come running and hug him as he entered. He was a hard taskmaster and his house officers and nurses would get calls as early as 4.00am from him, but they all loved him. Among those who were students and were constantly in and out of our home were  Dr Upul Wijewardene, the late Dr Christopher Canagaratne, the  late Dr Tony Don Micheal, the late Drs Denis and Hubert Aloysius, the late Dr Susantha Jayaratne, the late Dr Nihal Abeysundera and the late Dr Ranjith Attapattu. He entertained each group of medical students at his country home in Kaduwella which he eventually retired to. 
I recall an anecdote about him told to me by the late Denis Aloysius. Denis was late for a ward round with my father who was a stickler for punctuality; when he was questioned about his being late, he had said he had been at a dance and thus had slept late. My father had promptly taken him by the hand, and danced with him up and down the middle of the ward, much to the amusement of everyone present.

He was a devout Christian who never missed Church on Sunday. 
When my son Kishan was a baby and constantly ill, my father was doing a consultancy in Mauritius. I took Kishan there and spent a few months with him. Kishan thrived under his tender, loving medical care. He was a founder and active member of the Ceylon Paediatric Association, the Family Planning Association, and also began a convalescent home in Ragama for children from the Lady Ridgeway Hospital where they would be sent for recuperation under supervision before they returned to their homes. After retirement, he planted several acres of fruits including passion fruit, vegetables, etc, in Kaduwella. 

He continued to write on research in medicine, published a novel, “Out Steppes the Don” after his trip to Russia, and wrote “Mother, Your Baby” with Jean Visvanathan, which is much sought after even now but is out of print. Many mothers come up to me and say they brought their children up according to the guidelines of that book.
A few years ago, a lady paediatrician from London who was here for a conference told me that it was my father who had put Paediatrics on the world map of medicine with his writing and research. A senior doctor, Dr Nihal Thenabadu also told me that my father is a legend. All these make me glow with pride although tinged with sadness that he is no longer here for me, my children and grandchildren, who I know he would have adored.
It was a privilege for me to suggest the title for his autobiography, “Life as I lived it”, and to hand him the first copy the night before he died. I had slept in his room that night as he was restless. I left to go to Church early in the morning and returned to find that he had passed away, as handsome in death as he was in life. 
He dedicated his autobiography to his six grandchildren in the hope that they will learn many a lesson from his life, and pass them down to their descendants with these words: 
“What else is wisdom? What of man’s endeavour? 
Or God, high grace so lovely and so great,
To stand from fear set free, to breathe and wait,
To hold a hand uplifted over hate,
And shall not loveliness be loved forever.” 
                                                          – Quoted from Euripedes; translated by Sir Gilbert Murray. 
My father, the late Professor C.C. De Silva was a man who had ‘warmed both hands at the fire of life’, and he will live in my heart forever.