Great teacher and historian of Navy: Instructor Lieutenant Commander Somasiri Devendra

Instructor Lieutenant Commander Somasiri Devendra, who passed away last week, was born on 17 April, 1933, in Colombo, and commissioned to the Royal Ceylon Navy in February 1960 in the rank of Instructor Lieutenant. He graduated from the University of Ceylon (Peradeniya) in 1955 after reading English, History and Economics.

- By Admiral Ravindra C Wijegunaratne

In his own words, instructor officers, who were recruited into the Royal Ceylon Navy to teach subjects like English, History, Geography and Mathematics, who had bachelor's degrees, were known as “Schooleys” by other Navy officers.

Lt Cdr Devendra’s main task was to train officers at the Naval and Maritime Academy. He has trained officers in the English language and English history. By the time he retired from the Navy, after 16 years of service, in 1976, he had reached the rank of Lieutenant Commander and was the Commandant of the Naval and Maritime Academy (NMA).

In 1975, as Commandant of NMA, he trained the 4th Intake of Officer Cadets, which included two cadets from the Maldives.

This batch, led by Admiral Tisara Samarasinghe, former Navy Commander and former Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to Australia, hosted Lt Commander Devendra, and his wife Dayadari, in Trincomalee, a few months ago, celebrating the Golden Jubilee of the 4th Intake of Naval officer cadets who were recruited to the Sri Lanka Navy in 1975. Dayadari and Lt. Commander Devendra shared six decades of marriage and were blessed with two children, Nalaka and Mihiri.

The present Commandant, Rear Admiral Rohan Joseph (40th Commandment of NMA) hosted Devendra and his wife a few days prior to above-mentioned celebrations by felicitating Lt Cdr Devendra, who was the 6th Commandant of NMA.

Instructor Lt Commander Devendra joined the late Instructor Commander MSG Perera on 15 January, 1967, to establish a new Naval and Maritime Academy in the Naval Base, in Trincomalee, and it was commissioned on 15th July of the same year. These forefathers of NMA laid the foundations of training officers and sailors in Sri Lanka.