Michael Roberts
Gerd von Dincklage-Schulenburg seems to have been a world traveller and adventurer with daring do. Of German stock he was in Ceylon in the 1950s and cut quite a figure in Royal College and at the Kinross Swimming Club at Wellawatte beach according to Hugh Karunanayake (a Royalist now living in Melburne) who had this to osay: “He cut quite a figure with his long hair and riding his motorbike bare bodied through the streets of Colombo. He lived somewhere near Flower Road and attended Royal College for a couple of years.”
What is more, von Dinklage and Hugh Stewart were “were the first to introduce snorkelling and spear fishing into Sri Lanka. I think their base was the Kinross Swimming Club in Wellawatte” according to my niece Barbara Webster nee Stewart (of Perth now). Hugh, certainly, stoked my interest in snorkelling around Galle fort.
Be that as it may, we are fortunate that Barbara was able to supply a photograph, a faded one, of the two young adventurers at Kucheveli when the Stewart family were on holiday there.
Barbara adds: “It was taken when the family were holidaying at Kuchevali. The two men were very good friends, excellent swimmers and adventurers. ”
