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Haris De Silva: An Institution Himself in the Sri Lankan Archival World
Source:Thuppahis
Saroja Wettasinghe: VALE ….. Mr. G.P.S.H de Silva (1933-2026)
He is known as Harris to his friends and relatives, loving father to Mahen and Nalika, Seeya to his grand children, while he was a respected sir and Mr. Silva for us in the Archival world. I knew him from the time I joined the National Archives as the Asssistant Archivist(Technical) in 1983 when Mr.Silva was the acting Director National Archives. After a month he became the Director National Archives.
Mr. Silva was a superb leader who wanted to train his subordinates and disciplined them to work according to rules and regulations. We have a great respect for him. He trained us by not only giving theoretical aspects of archival administration and records management as he was a practical person who inculculated practical aspects in the sphere of archival science including preservation and conservation of archives as well. He was my first teacher/Guru in the all fields related to Archives. Although I joined as the head of the Technical Division he made sure that I gained the knowledge in all the fields existed in the SLNA by giving me a proper training. All the novice offices had to report to him daily what they had learned. He allocated time for it amidst of his busy schedule. I still remember he used to correct us not by scolding, jokingly he used to pinpoint our mistakes. Although he is a very strict head of the department he was a kind hearted person with humane qualities. He served the SLNA for many years as an Asst. Archivist, Asst. Director and the Director SLNA (then head of the Department) and taught his subordinates to work with dedication and love to the archival material and to the institution. He created many faciltities at the SLNA with the available circumstances. Although the land of the present location was taken during the former director SLNA Mr. Amarawansa Devaraja and the foundation was laid during his period, I heard that all the meetings were conducted, supervised the work of the construction and monitered the progress by Mr. Silva.
He new how to obtain the services properly from his subordinates. All of us have a high respect for him as he was a person with very good authority and superb leadeship qualities. When he assigned some work to us, by sending a small chit, and he asked us to report in 3days or 7days, exactly on that day he asked us to bring that assigned work completed. We always wondered about his memory thinking how he remembered the exact date. He was a very good planner. I am sure that he had a way to do that. All of us had to maintain the official diary. His diary was always on his table with a ribbon tied to open it quickly.
He is a person who gained the respect and honour not only in Sri Lanka, throughout the world specially in the field of Archives. He was elected as an Executive Member of the International Council of Archives (ICA) while there were only 18 members were in the Executive Board . Being Sri Lankans we were very proud at the time of this honour and I must mention even we were recognized highly because of him. He was appointed as an Honorary Member of the ICA in recognizing his services rendered to the international community in the archival field. He was the first Secreatary General of the SWARBICA (South West Asian Regional Branch of International Council of Archives). His dedication and love for the Archival field is highly appreciated and respected.
He has many publications in the fields of History and Archival administration to his credit. I remember his Ramp Study published by the ICA was translated into three languages. He is a good researcher and a scholar. He was the person who found the original Kandyan Convention among the archival volumes.
Even after his retirement, he provided his services to the SLNA as a teacher for new recruits of SLNA. He was a great support to me while I was the Director/DG SLNA.
He was a second father to me. I feel very sad and sir, I love you and my humble respect for you is always with me and hope and wish that you will have short sansara and obtain supreme bliss of Nirvana.
My deepest sympathies to Mahen, Nalika and other members of your families.
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NOTE B = I cannot but second Saroja’s APPRECIATION of “HARIS” and will pen a separate VALE in his memory on the foundations of a lon g and continuous sereis of interactions with himat the Archives.
