Three women on a “palu” tree – by GEORGE BRAINE In December 1949, my parents, Teddy and Fernie, travelled to Ranna in the deep south, to spend the Christmas holidays with Eddie and Bridget (Bee) Wambeek. Bridget was my father’s sister, and Eddie was the local PHI. At Ranna, they met Dr. Tissera, and his wife. My late father wrote about this visit, so I’ll borrow his words for a first-hand account. “Dr. Tissera suggested going into the jungle to watch wild elephants. The three ladies in the group – Mrs. Tissera, my sister Bee, and my wife Fernie – were all in an advanced state of pregnancy. But they readily consented to go on the trip without realising its gravity. Having walked about half a mile into the thick jungle (munching various sour fruits) and laughing at Eddie’s jokes, we finally arrived at the foot of a huge “palu” ...
George Braine
Desmond Tutu, Our Generation’s Moral Conscience – By GEORGE BRAINE The passing of Archbishop Tutu takes my mind back to 2008, when he, as the Chair of The Elders – a group of “independent global leaders working together for peace and human rights” – found fault with the Sri Lankan government for killing of civilians. Subsequently, an Opinion piece appeared in a local newspaper, criticizing Rev. Tutu. According to the writer, “fighting a terrorist group is violence” for Rev. Tutu. Further, Tutu had not spoken a word against Zimbabwe’s human rights violations, nor against the Western invasion of Iraq. In my response, I stated that these outrageous statements regarding Rev. Tutu made me cringe. I further stated that, in a Sri Lanka that was becoming increasingly self-centered, where freedom of information is severely curtailed, where journalists critical of the government are often assaulted or killed, we need to maintain at least a semblance ...
Jan 4, 2022
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Tagged African National Congress, Desmond Tutu, George Braine, Thabo Mbeki
A Beautiful, Heart Warming Moment GEORGE BRAINE The two high jumpers, one from Qatar and the other from Italy, briefly speak with an official. The Qatari grins and nods to the Italian, who leaps on the Qatari, embracing him tightly, and spins around, wailing. He rolls on the ground, gets up and falls again. Sinking to his knees, he picks up a leg cast on which is written “Road to Tokyo”, lifts it to the sky, and screams. The Italian flag draped around him, he begins a mad run around the stadium. Meanwhile, the Qatari, more subdued but wiping a tear, walks over to his compatriots, who close protectively around him. What is going on? Why is the Italian athlete going crazy? I am in Japan, obsessively watching the Olympics on four local channels. All in Japanese, a language I don’t understand much. So, only when the English news reports ...
Aug 14, 2021
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Shades of Beddegama in teeming Hong Kong-By GEORGE BRAINE Source:Island Even after being closely connected to Hong Kong for 26 years, I am still amazed by the contrasts there. Professionals earn the highest salaries in the world while destitute old women scavenge for cardboard boxes. Tycoons live in the world’s most expensive mansions while the poorest live in tiny subdivided flats. Perhaps the most striking contrast is the crowded urban areas of Central, Kowloon, and Mong Kok, and the deserted villages in the rural parts of the New Territories, where I lived. Hong Kong is barely 500 square miles, and only half of that is inhabited; the rest is given over to hillsides and country parks. They are seven million tightly packed people. Then, how does one explain deserted villages? Wong Chuk Yeung Leonard Woolf’s classic Village in the Jungle, set in colonial Ceylon, narrates the slow decline of a small, ...
Shakespeare in a takarang shed By George Braine In a tribute to Prof. Ashley Halpe, his daughter recently wrote about the time he was “forced to give his lectures in a takarang shed”. That triggered my memories, of sitting in those takarang sheds, both as a teacher and a student. This is that story. But, let me begin at the beginning. In 1973, I was teaching English at a remote school in the Uva, when the Vidyalankara campus advertised for English instructors. I was called for a written test, and, to my amazement, nearly 200 applicants had turned-up. I thought my chances were nil. Surprisingly, after a follow-up interview, I was selected, one of only three appointees. Vidyalankara campus sat on a hill, at Kelaniya, not far from the Colombo – Kandy road. As one climbed the hill, back in the mid-1970s, the sports ground and the convocation hall would ...
May 26, 2021
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Charles Stanley Braine (1874-1944) – the Rajah of Mawatte By George Braine The e-mail, with the question “Are you a Ceylon Braine?”, arrived out of the blue when I lived in Hong Kong. The writer – I’ll call her Susan – had found me on the Internet. She went onto detail some family history, and claimed that, because she and I shared great, great grandparents, we were third cousins. Family history had been an interest since she was 10 years old. She had inherited a collection of family documents and a photo album, and also found family documents from research in the UK. She mentioned that both my great, great grandfather and great grandfather had been planters in Ceylon. This came as a huge surprise. Not having delved into family history, I was under the impression that my grandfather was the first Braine to arrive in Ceylon. Instead, from ...
Jan 24, 2021
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Tagged Adeline Mary Becher, Ceylon, Ceylon Tea Plantations, Charles Frederick Braine, Charles Stanley Braine, East Holyrood Estate, George Braine, Stanlodge, Talawakelle, Yakwila Estate
Charles Frederick Braine (1850 – 1896), Adventurous, Accident Prone, Great grandfather-By George Braine I have previously written about my great, great grandfather Charles Joseph Braine (1814-1890), who became a coffee and tea planter in Ceylon. Charles Frederick was the fourth child Charles Joseph. He was born in Norton Fitzwarren, a village in Somerset, UK, where his parents resided upon their return from Hong Kong. Charles Frederick first came to Ceylon in 1869, at the age of 19, to work for Ceylon Company Ltd., where his father Charles Joseph was the manager. He returned to the UK to marry Adeline Mary Becher on 9 April 1874 at Kensington, London. Their first child, Charles Stanley (my grandfather) was born the same year, on 25 December, in Ceylon. ...
Dec 22, 2020
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That Icelandic Air Crash – 1978 By George Braine In 1978, I was commissioned in the Sri Lanka Air Force as a volunteer officer. After a month of rigorous training at the Diyatalawa combat training unit, I was assigned to the Regiment of the Air Force Base at Katunayake, Sri Lanka’s largest air base. The Regiment is the ground combat unit of the Air Force. In addition to flying squadrons, the base also had administrative, engineering, logistical, supply, and other units, along with a hospital. The base is on a large coconut plantation, and sits next to Sri Lanka’s international airport, which was built long after the base was established. The two runways – of the air force and the international airport’s – ran parallel. The sound of jetliners landing and taking off was noisy and was a nuisance at night. I was given a room at the ...
Dec 14, 2020
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Charles Joseph Braine (1814-1890) – Patriarch of the Braines in Ceylon By George Braine C.J. Braine was born in Middlesex, England, in 1814. He began working for Dent & Co. in China and moved to Hong Kong in 1941, when the island was occupied by the British. In Hong Kong, he was listed as a partner of Dent & Co., a Justice of the Peace and a member of the Asiatic Society. Hong Kong In Hong Kong, Braine was best known as the owner of Green Bank, a large, luxuriant garden. A vivid description of the garden can be found in A Journey to the Tea Countries of China by Robert Fortune (1852). Fortune wrote that rugged mountains were seen to one side of Green Bank, contrasting with the lush vegetation of the garden. He lists the shrubs and fruit trees, such as Chinese banyan, India rubber, Indian neem, ...
Dec 4, 2020
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Tagged Abbotsleigh bungalow, Abbotsleigh tea factory, Britain, C.J. Braine, Ceylon, Eudora Marriot Braine, George Braine
