More MPs who became friends

Dr.Atapattu served as a MP for Dover 12 years in the ad August Parliaments beginning August 1977. He also served as Minister of Health and Minister of Social Welfare.

- Ranjith Atapattu

I was privileged to have known Ranjith since school days when we both joined the Royal Primary School at the age of five years and took part as 10-year-olds in the play "The Song of Hiawatha." by Henry Longfellow.

We sat next to each other on that occasion in a photograph dating back to the 1940s. Later we were together at Royal College proper from 1945 onward.

I was privileged to have known his father D.P Atapattu who represented Beliatta in the Fourth and Sixth parliaments and functioned as a state minister. As students we enjoyed visiting Ranjith at his home in Tangalle when we were en route to Kataragama and enjoyed his hospitality when we stayed for lunch on his insistence. Ranjith would very often stop by my room for a chat and we spent time reminiscing about our college days and parliamentary practices.

Ranjith, as an affable and dedicated Minister of Health was impeccably honest and hardworking and was appreciated by the doctors of his generation. He was a keen and dedicated old Royalist and having played Rugby for school, it was natural that each year when Royal played Trinity College, Kandy at the Bradby Shield, we would, with a few of our college mates, head to Kandy. We stayed at the Peradeniya Gardens circuit bungalow which I was able to reserve thus enjoying ourselves in a relaxed manner.

Ranjith fell ill with heart problem and was admitted to the General Hospital, and I recall President Ranasinghe Premadasa, knowing our close friendship, telling me that he was willing to fly him to the U.K. for treatment, which he politely declined.

After recovering, Ranjith was offered a post with the UNICEF in New York.

He resigned his parliamentary seat and took up the appointment. I remember Mr. Premadasa, saying he did not want to stand in his way and would have otherwise refused his resignation.