It was indeed a sad day and a great loss for members of his family, relatives and friends when Dr. Disampathy Subesinghe breathed his last in hospital after a short period of illness.

Mallika and I came to know Dr. Subesighe six years ago when he wound up his assets in the United Kingdom and came to reside in Sri Lanka. Our two sons and grandchildren too came to know him and kept in contact with him.

After graduating from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Colombo and serving in outstation hospitals in Sri Lanka, he and his wife (who was also a doctor) left Sri Lanka and migrated to the UK to serve in the National Health Services there. After roaming around for a while they settled down in Leeds and continued their medical careers. Unfortunately for Dr. Subesinghe, his wife succumbed while under the scalpel of the surgeon as the result of a medical misadventure. Thereafter, he had to see to the education of his son, Samitha and daughter Amali. He managed to coax Amali to follow the medical course as she had decided not to continue after the demise of her mother.

After having been in England for half a century, he decided to return to his homeland and just after the worldwide Covid 19 pandemic, he settled all his assets in the UK whilst being here as he decided to spend the evening years in his homeland.

It was at this time that my wife and I made friends with him as we were occupying apartments in the same condominium. That friendship we had was a Godsend as we will never come across a person like him in our lifetime. Even though he was having health problems of his own, he never hesitated to help a person whether he knew the person or not, with prescriptions for medication and in many instances with money.

We used to meet on and off in the evenings and his imparting the knowledge he possessed on any subject under the sun was education for others. He would discuss Buddhist philosophy, English literature, cricket, tennis, football, rugger, or any other subject. He knew almost all the players in these sports from the olden days to the current and also the results of various matches in these sports.

He was an avid reader who collected books on various subjects by well-known and other authors. After reading these books he would enlighten anyone who was interested in with an enlightening discourse on the subjects.

Dr. Subesinghe loved to talk with children, even those whose parents he did not know. This may have been because he worked as a pediatrician when he was in the UK.

He knew no limits when he helped persons who had pecuniary problems, and also who sought his help financially towards educating a child. It was not only people that he knew who received his attention. There were several persons from faraway places that he had helped, may be to undergo surgery, or towards treatment of eyes. The number of such instances is so much that it is impossible to mention them individually.

Another outstanding attribute of Subs (as we used to address him) was he never hesitated to fight for the rights of the downtrodden. He would help them by drafting letters or appeals for them and also get the assistance of lawyers to fight on their behalf. He could not stand injustice being done to people who were not in a position to fight back.

His passing has been great loss to many of his relatives and friends, and we will never come across a person like Dr. Subesinghe in our life again.

Whilst extending the deepest condolences to his son Samitha and daughter Amali we pray that his journey through Samsara be short and may he attain the supreme bliss of Nirvana!

HM NISSANKA

WARAKAULLE