Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera (ret.) meets members of the SLESPA-UK

It was a day to remember when Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera(rtd.) shared some of his life's experiences as a sea warrior, a poet and a politician, with members of the Sri Lanka Ex Service Person Association in the UK (SLESPA-UK), on Sunday the 20th September at the Come Dine Restaurant in Harrow. Twenty five guests from across the UK took the time to attend this special event.

The Vice President of SPESPA-UK, Capt. (Dr). Sena Nanayakkara (rtd), on behalf of the members, warmly welcomed Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera, with a brief introduction highlighting the multi-talented versatility of his unblemished and illustrious Naval career of 35 years. Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera has commanded Eastern, Northern, Western and Southern Naval Areas and he held ranking positions as Director General Welfare, Director General Operations, and so on, at Naval Headquarters and retired as the Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Navy in 2006. He was then appointed the Director General of the Civil Defence Force. He continued to serve the people of Sri Lanka by being a Member of Parliament for Ampara for 5 years. He is also a Buddhist scholar, currently reading for his PhD in Buddhist Philosophy at Kelaniya University.

Rear Admiral Weerasekera addressed the audience describing the challenging experiences he faced during the highly charged 'civil war' against the ruthless 'Tigers'. He also recollected some of the humorous regimental anecdotes which kept the audience fully entertained. He was able to recite some of the old 'impromptu verses' (Hiti Vana Kavi) which he may have recited many a time in the past to the great delight of the audience. He concluded his speech by touching briefly on his community service career as an M.P. There were quite a few questions and comments from some members, who knew more of his wide and varied talent as a writer and a film producer, in addition to being a great war hero.

Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera also met our oldest member - 92 year old veteran Gerald Daniels who fought in WWII whilst serving in the Royal Ceylon Navy Volunteer Force (RCNVF), and took time to reminisce with his former colleagues Lieutenant Commanders Kapila de Alwis (rtd.), Lieutenant Commander Cicil Wickramasinghe (rtd.), Lieutenant Commander Premaratne (rtd). Lieutenant Commander Kapila de Alwis (rtd.) said that Admiral Weerasekera was well known in the Navy for his care of his subordinate officers and the ranks with respect and humility, in spite of his powerful high ranking positions at a time of great uncertainty and enormous risks.

Fl. Lt. (Dr.) Deepthi Ratnayake (rtd) proposed the vote of thanks and presented a SLESPA-UK tie as a souvenir.Members and their partners bade farewell to Rear Admiral Weerasekera after the scrumptious buffet lunch. The event was organised by Capt. Mahen Abayasekera (rtd).