Johnny de Silva
Aloysius Oswin Silva ……Born = June 21, 1937 ….. Called to Rest = March 2 2018
Oswin joined St. Aloysius College in January 1947 when he was 9 years old. At that time his parents Mr and Mrs A Moses Silva lived in Peliagoda, Kelaniya. He continued at SAC till he had reached the HSC form when in 1958 he left to join Aquinas University College in Colombo.
During his 11 years at SAC he became the Prefect of the Sodality of Our Lady, captained Cooreman House, won his College colours in cricket when in 1956, he was in the team that, under the captaincy of Anver Jawadh, created College history by being the 1st SAC team to win all their cricket matches. He also represented the College in Football and Athletic.
At Aquinas he obtained a London Degree in Economics. It was there that he met his future wife, Indra Lowe. Who sadly predeceased him.
Oswin joined USAID and was based in Kandy. While there he went onto become the Lions Governor; for that matter, the last All Island Governor, achieving many objectives of the Lions’ movement and being conferred many honours by the Lions Clubs’ International. After his spell as Governor, he continued with USAID in Colombo, re-joining the OBA Colombo Branch as a Vice President and becoming President the following year uncontested. He was re-elected uncontested 4 times. He rejuvenated the Colombo Branch introducing many new features, some of which are continued to this day.
He resided in the USA for a while and returned to Sri Lanka on the death of his beloved Indra. He celebrated his 80th birth anniversary among relatives, neighbours and a host of friends and well-wishers.
I got to know Oswin when I joined SAC as a ‘Boarder’ in 1951. He was a great singer and kept us entertained with his repertoire of Sinhala songs and bailas. We were in the Sodality, members of the 1956 College cricket team that were awarded colours, in the Photographic Society, the Music Club and in the cast of the plays Soap 13 and Fair of Sevilla. Oswin was a ‘live wire’ and at that early age showed his capabilities as an organiser and leader.
Vale my dear friend. I was fortunate to meet you at the 2016 AGM in Colombo. May you rest in peace…….Johnny de Silva
Thank you for doing this write-up about our father. We appreciate your kind words and remembering him.