CHARLES HENRY DE SOYSA Sri Lanka’s legendary Philanthropist

3 March 2020 12:03 am Views - 1100

March 3 has dawn again, an important date for the descendants of the late Charles Henry and for all those who benefited through his extraordinary largesse to our nation. Through time immemorial, from my infancy, legends about him woven through the passage of time have been related within the family and outside it too. No-one it seems has done as much in a variety of fields, but mainly in health, education and agriculture which show his amazing vision which reached far beyond his time. For today too, in this day and age these are the most important fields to focus on. As we, his descendants and others who respect and revere his memory, pay homage to him at his statue which stands tall at De Soysa Circus, its time too to reflect on all he was and did, and wonder how we could in our small way , for none of us have the resources he did, do something to carry his memory and name forward forever.   

To take a peep into his family background, his great grandfather was a boat-builder in Devinuwara, a Buddhist and a Dayake of the ancient vihara there. Charles Henry’s grandfather Joseph began with carpentry and later became an Ayurvedic physician. Charles’s father Jeronis started as a businessman in a small way but soon developed into a leading business magnate, who was abstemious, so was able to amass a considerable fortune which was more than trebled by Charles Henry who possessed remarkable business acumen. He was one of the original pupils who started at S. Thomas College when it began at Mutwal. The benefactions of Charles Henry were many but the crown of all these are widely considered to be the donation of the land and building erected for the De Soysa Hospital, which has been of immense benefit to several millions of mothers for more than a hundred years. At that time, not too many women were able to go to hospitals for delivery and this generous act shows the amazing foresight of the late Charles Henry for supplying this need at that particular moment in time.   

 

His statue which stands tall at De Soysa Circus, its time too to reflect on all he was and did, and wonder how we could in our small way , for none of us have the resources he did, do something to carry his memory and name forward forever

His other benefaction of paramount importance as it concerns youth and education was the vast acreage donated by him for the erection of the necessary buildings, playing fields etc for Prince and Princess of Wales Colleges, whose students have adorned the corridors of power in Church, State, Universities, as Captains of Industry and entrepreneurs, all because he wanted the youth of his home town Moratuwa, to have an education second to none in this country. The greatest tributes to him even today are by students part and present of these two schools who spare neither time or expense in paying tribute to his memory, remembering him with great appreciation and respect. Although as an Anglican, he gave most generously to other religions as well, to churches, temples and kovils. He was known to be a just, fair and kind employer, helped the underprivileged, the differently-abled, the visibly impaired, the hearing impaired, provided dowries to those who couldn’t afford to do so for their daughters, gave land to the landless far away from his home town, gave a vast acreage to the British government for a model Farm in Colombo, which now houses the Golf Club and many palatial residences. He donated funds to hospitals in the UK including the Great Ormond Street hospital for children and my father was surprised to find his grandfather’s name on a panel stating this when he interned there.   

He was also bestowed a singular honour, of being elected an honorary member of the Atheneum, which is said is the oldest and  most prestigious club in London, to which a few Asians were admitted at that time. His generosity to his fellow human beings and nation covered all the primary needs of man from the cradle to the grave, besides the De Soysa hospital for women, he built other hospitals in other places in Sri Lanka, provided amenities for the study of medicine, roads, bridges, rest houses, tanks, irrigation, endowment to public institutions. It could well be said of him that seldom in the annals of philanthropy have so much been owed by so many to one single man. He obviously believed in the principle that it is more blessed to give than to receive. He established a co-operative Society for the Carpenters of Moratuwa, was the Founder of the Ceylon Agricultural Association and the first Ceylonese Banker.   
As his great granddaughter, I say a silent prayer of thanks, as I pass his statue at De Soysa Circus for his soul, for seldom is a man of this stature seen in this day and age. All of us who are his descendants owe him a lot for what we are and I am proud that his blood flows in mine and that of my children. He was said to be a man of shy and reserved disposition who pursued his good works, not in public but in privacy. I end with the words my father, his grandson, the late Prof. C.C. de Silva wrote in The De Soysa Saga, ‘It is a privilege bestowed on few of us to be remembered, wept, honoured and sung for 100 years or more after our deaths. So I believe we are a grateful and cultured nation and the name of De Soysa will flourish and be honoured in this land for a long time to come.’     

 

He was also bestowed a singular honour, of being elected an honorary member of the Atheneum, which is said is the oldest and  most prestigious club in London, to which a few Asians were admitted at that timethere.