Mr.
Cadmus Gregory de Livera Wickramanayaka Samarasinha, the exemplary teacher more
popularly known by all who loved him as ‘Mr. Cadmus Samarasinha’ is no more. A
few months back, on the 09th April 2017 he bade his last farewell to
his children, grandchildren and many hundreds of grateful pupils from many
quarters of Galle. It is with much grief and sorrow I pen these few words in
appreciation of the immortal service rendered by Mr. Samarasinha as a teacher
and mentor.
Mr. Cadmus Samarasinha was a descendant of the
respectable Samarasinha family of Baddegema, Galle, whose family history can be
traced back to the Dutch period of the colonial times. He was born on the 20th
of January 1926 as the fifth of a family of seven children. His father Benjamin
William de L. W. Samarasinha was the Senior Supervisor of the Baddegama Rubber
Estate. His mother Roslyn Maria Wirasinha was a modest lady from the Wirasinha
family of Ganegama. Mr. Samarasinha used to recollect gratefully the sacrifices
his parents had made to give him a decent upbringing.
At the age of six, in 1932, the little Cadmus was
admitted to the Christ Church Girl’s School for primary education. In those
days, boys under ten were permitted to have primary education at girl’s
schools. Though he was transferred to Christ Church Boys English School for
secondary education, he left for Richmond College after a short stint. However,
his stay at Richmond College did not last long, as Galle schools were closed in
1942 due to the World War II. He returned to Christ Church Boys English School,
and continued his studies up to Senior School Certificate Examination (SSC). He
rejoined Richmond College in 1944 with the intention of studying for the Higher
School Certificate Examination (HSC). As the English teacher of Richmond
College left teaching profession for greener pastures, Cadmus the lad joined
St. Aloysius College to continue his studies.
The
young Mr. Cadmus Samarasinha sat the HSC Examination in 1947 offering English
Language and Literature, Governmrnt (‘Political Science’ in today’s terms),
History and Geography as his subjects. Though he was studying Sinhalese
Language and Literature at Richmond, after joining the new school he had to
shift to Geography instead. In 1948 Mr. Samarasinha entered the Arts Faculty of
the University of Ceylon, the only university in Ceylon at that time, from St.
Aloysius College. His career as an undergraduate was an excellent one. He was
elected as the Junior Treasurer of the University Union Society with a large
majority of votes, and he held the position for a period of a year from March
1949 to March 1950. He had also contributed to ‘Union’ the official publication
of the Union Society.
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| Mr. Cadmus G. de L. W. Samarasinha |
Immediately
after graduation Mr. Samarasinha took to teaching, the profession to which he
devoted his entire life. On 01st March 1950 he joined
the tutorial staff of Mahinda College, Galle. First he taught English Language
and Literature in SSC and SSC Preparatory classes. Of the fifty seven students
he prepared for the examination, two failed, twelve had first division passes,
and five had distinctions in English Language and Literature. One student of
them called Sarachchandra came first in the island. Mr. Samarasinha also taught
Ceylon History in the University Preliminary classes. He had two students
offering the subject, Ariyadasa de Silva and Somasiri de Silva. Both of them
passed the examination while Mr. Ariyadasa de Silva who won an exhibition later
became a Professor of Humanities. He is the first of the celebrated past pupils
of Mr. Samarasinha. The other student Somasiri de Silva joined teaching
profession and retired as a principal.
When
Mr. Samarasinha came to Mahinda College they had only Science and Oriental
Studies for the HSC Examination. Therefore the students who wanted to offer
Arts had to leave the school or shift their stream to Oriental Studies. With
much reluctance three students A. P. L. Abeysooriya, Eric J. de Silva, and G.
P. Leelananda de Silva were going to leave Mahinda College to do Arts. It was
then Mr. Cadmus Samarasinha founded the Arts Stream at Mahinda, volunteering to
teach them three subjects: Ceylon History, Western History and Government, avoiding
them leaving the school. It is needless to say how challenging it is even today
to teach three subjects for students sitting for the University Entrance
Examination. However Mr. Samarasinha’s charisma, commitment and perseverance
brought him success. All three students he prepared for the 1953 HSC
Examination got through it with flying colours. They were also exempted from
any interview. Some of them also won scholarships to study at Cambridge
University.
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| Mr. Cadmus G. de L. W. Samarasinha with his renowned past pupils, son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren |
Mr. Samarasinha’s stay at Mahinda College was
a turning point of his life as well as in the history of the school. It was as
a result of joining Mahinda he became a Buddhist. The alarming success of his
students also brought him reputation a gifted teacher. He was requested by the
principals of both Richmond College and St. Aloysius College to lend his
services to their schools as well. Thus, Mr. Samarasinha served his two old
schools, both Richmond and St. Aloysius Colleges as a visiting teacher of
English. Still, Mr. Samarasinha was not confined to class-room teaching alone.
He revived the Mahinda College Magazine which had not been publisheed after 1945,
and made it an annual feature since 1953. To improve spoken English of the
students, he organized a number of intraschool and interschool debates. Of them
the annual English debate held before the big match with Richmond College
became a popular event. The credit of initiating the Annual Big Match Souvenir
should also go to Mr. Samarasinha. He was also the founder of the Mahinda
College Arts Society and Annual Arts Day Celebrations. Even the constitution of
the Arts Society was drawn by him.
During
the period Mr. Cadmus Samarasinha served as the warden of the Mahinda College
Hostel, he made a number of innovations aimed at making hostel life less
monotonous and more enjoyable. The introduction of swimming and life-saving
lessons to hostellers was one such activity. Another completely new innovation
was the annual hostel trip. Annual
Founder’s Day Dinner was also a concept of Mr. Samarasinha which added flavor
to hostel life. He who was concerned about the hostellers nourishment, even
made new additions to the hostel meals.
In 1966 Mr. Samarasinha left Mahinda College
to follow a pedagogy course at the Training School, Maharagama. There he was an
outstanding student. He became the president of the English students’ union,
the editor of the magazine, as well as the leader of the English debating team.
After the successful completion of the course he spent two short stays at
Koslanda Junior School, and Ampegama Maha Vidyalaya as the acting principal and
the English teacher respectively. On the 16th February 1968 Mr.
Samarasinha joined G/ Nagoda Maha Vidyalaya as the Deputy Principal. There he
taught English to Advanced Level students. The principal of the school, Mr.
Richard Pathirana, left teaching profession to contest for the Parliamentary
Election in 1982. Since then Mr. Samarasinha had to perform the role of the
acting principal until a new principal was appointed a few months before his
retirement in 1986.
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| Mr. Cadmus G. de L. W. Samarasinha with two of his grandchildren |
After
his retirement Mr. Samarasinga served the English Teaching Unit of the
University of Ruhuna, and the Sri Lankan Air Force as an English instructor. It
was during his stay at the Air Force that some Old Mahindians requested him to
return to Mahinda College and improve the standard of English which had fallen
perilously low. In 1996 he came back to Mahinda, the cradle of his teaching
career, sacrificing a job that paid him more than thrice the money he would get
there. On his return, he was sad to find that the Arts Society he initiated had
lost its vigour and become another Sinhalese Literary Association. However the
flourishing success of swimming as an extracurricular activity was a reason for
him to be happy.
Without
biding much time on teaching English literature in grades nine and ten, Mr.
Cadmus Samarasinha started working on his real assignment. He introduced a
number of activities to improve the spoken English of the students. One measure
taken to achieve this goal was encouraging drama at school. Mr. Samarasinha
organized a Senior Drama Society and started practicing drama in the
afternoons. The students he trained took part in various national level
competitions and in 1998 their performance at the All Island Shakespeare Drama
Competition became first in the island. The team won four awards and Mr. Cadmus
Samarasinha was awarded the ‘Best Director’ award. He also revived the annual
English debate held before the big match, and introduced scrabble to improve
the students’ speech and vocabulary. He published the College Magazine after a
long break of three decades in 1998. In 2002 a more comprehensive historical
magazine followed it.
During
his second stay at Mahinda, Mr. Samarasinha also served as an English
instructor at the Aquinas College, and Government Technical College, Kaluwella
for a brief period. Though he made his last bow to Mahinda College in September
2004, it did not mark the end of his teaching career. Students from every nook
and corner of Galle came all the way to Baddegama looking for this charismatic
English teacher. Mr. Samarasinha taught each one of them with never-fading
enthusiasm until he decided to give up teaching career in 2011. His pupils
include many respectable professionals such as university academics, civil
servants, lawyers, journalists, teachers, and even politicians. Amongst them Prof.
Garvin Samarawickrema, Dr. Ariyadasa de Silva, Mr. Eric J. de Silva, Mr. A. P.
L. Abeysooriya, Mr. G. P. Leelananda de Silva, Mr. Wijepala Mendis, Mr. Yalith
Wijesurendra etc. are some prominent figures. I was fortunate enough to be his
last pupil. All his pupils belonging to many different periods of his teaching
career, are extremely grateful to their beloved teacher, for his devotion,
commitment and the unchallengeable example he set before them as a great human
being who owes nothing to his motherland.
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Mr. Cadmus G. de L. W. Samarasinha
in 2009 |
Beloved wife of Mr. Samarasinha, Mrs. W.
Premalatha Gunawardena, who was the Registrar of the Government Technical
College, Kaluwella, had predeceased him on the 23rd January 1999. They were
loving parents of four children: Nadirsha (Computer Instructor, Galle CRP),
Deepani, Geethani (Senior Research Officer, Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian
Research Institute), Chathurani (Clerical Staff, Teaching Hospital,
Karapitiya). A small project designed by Mr. Samarasinha to introduce his
lineal ancestors to these children had grown into something that he never
thought it would be. In 2016, Mr. Samarasinha published the findings of this
project in a single compendium, which he named ‘The Trisinha’. It comprises the
family history of the Samarasinhas, as well as that of his closest relations,
the Edirisinhas, and the Wirasinhas. He had devoted the last few chapters of
the work for his autobiography.
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