HENRY MATTHEW SOLOMON

Henry was born in Kandy on 21st September 1934. He had his early education at St. Anthony's College and St. Sylvester's College Kandy and entered St. Benedict's College in 1949.

His arrival at St Benedict’s College coincided with the latter stages of the regeneration of the College after WW2, when the widely supported objectives promoted by the various Directors over the post war period, i.e., the provision of Arts, Science and Commercial Departments to secure high quality education for students wanting to pursue professional careers through the various Universities, Professional Institutions, etc., were being implemented.

And why St Benedict‘s College? “It was, perhaps, largely due to the fact that my sister was a boarder at Good Shepherd Convent and having both children at the same location made it easier for my parents, who lived in Kurunegala at the time” says Henry in his memoir in “Bens Memoirs”.

At St Benedict‘s College, sports took up a lot of his time and he represented College at football, athletics, badminton, table tennis, and cricket (Second X1).

• He was a member of the unbeaten soccer teams of 1952 and 1953 and also captained the team in the latter half of the 1953 season.
• Represented College in the mile and half-mile at the public schools meet and held the College record for the mile for over a quarter century.
• Was a member of the badminton team that performed creditably in inter-school competitions.
• He played Table Tennis in the team that included the legendary Desi DeVotta, the future national runner-up.
• Played soccer at SBC for 3 years in Left wing in the same team as Russell Raymond who played on the right
• It is formally recorded that he was the first post-World War II football player from St. Benedict‘s College to enter the university.
• After graduation he taught at St Aloysius College Galle and St Joseph’s Grandpass
• Was an inaugural member of the Old Bens UK and served as its first Hon. Secretary and a member of the Editorial Board for the Newsletter for several years.

Henry left St Benedict's College in 1954, entering Peradeniya University to read Geography Honours.

According to Old Ben C. Pathmanathan, a contemporary at the University of Peradeniya,

• “He shone at the same sports that he engaged in at College and he was, indisputably, the Sports Captain of Ramanathan Hall where he resided. With Rev. Fr.Pinto as chaplain, Solla was an active member of the Newman Society. Reverend Fathers Claver Perera (Peterite), Egerton Perera and Derrick Mendis (Josephians) were his juniors at the University.”

My earliest recollections of Henry go back to the late 1940s when we were both members of St John Berchmans Association and participated, as altar servers, at the various ceremonies at St. Lucia's Cathedral. I became aware, much later, of Henry's love of, and his extraordinary ability at, athletics and sports .

We lost touch with each other when Henry left for University and I left College in 1954. We next met in the mid 1960s when we attended a routine inter- departmental meeting at the London Borough of Camden where, unknown to each other, we were both employed by the same Authority; Henry in the Town Planning Department and I was in the Borough Engineer's Department. When we met the 'Benedictine Link' clicked in immediately into position and I then found that another Old Ben, Neville Ponniah, was also employed in the Authority's Planning Department. Clearly Henry's good reputation had encouraged the Authority to employ Neville also!

We lost touch again when Henry, having secured a

Diploma in Town Planning and left the London Borough of Camden, to advance his career with other Local Authorities.

We next met in about 1990 when the Old Bens UK was being formed. That was an auspicious time for Henry as several Old Bens from 'our era' were able to re-establish links that were lost many years before. Indeed, that reuniting of Old Bens brought together a few colleagues who, although they were not close at College and were from various academic and professional backgrounds found a common link with the fact that they were Old Bens and, more importantly, perhaps, they had opinions on a whole range of issues that were similar if not identical.

Henry was the 'lynch pin' of this small group of Old Bens (particularly after Jerry Paranahetty's death in 2007) and he was the driving force in keeping the group together with regular meetings, lunches, dinners, etc. Since Jerry passed away in 2007 Henry has always arranged for some of us to meet on or about the 1st December each year to celebrate Jerry's birthday - as we promised him we would!

He was a familiar caller to my home, particularly following his many trips to various places throughout the world after which he wanted the photographs that he had taken to be downloaded, adjusted where necessary, cropped and burned onto CDs for sending to various people. He was also very fond of our West Highland Terrier - Bonnie - who always knew Henry was at the door even before he even rang the door bell.

Henry's devastating "low" occurred when he learned that his sister Beulah had perished in the Tsunami in Sri Lanka in 2004: he was inconsoleable - and, if the truth is told, I don't think he ever got over it.

Naturally, Henry was severely shaken when he was declared terminally ill earlier this year. He told me that that was the luck of the draw although I had several glimpses over the past few weeks of Henry trying to put a brave face on his inevitable and dreadful future - I felt so sorry for him and hoped that he would be spared the unimaginable difficulties that he was told he might have to endure. Mercifully, he did not suffer the worst case scenario but it was so very sad to see this robustly healthy guy of 11 stone or so become a barely 5 stone shadow of himself in a few weeks.

And when I asked him days before he died whether there was anything that he wanted me to say to anyone - or anything that he was proud of having done he said

• “It is on record that I was the first post-World War II football player from St. Benedict’s College to enter University.
• In 1956 I was chosen and played in the Colombo - Peradeniya Soccer team in Secunderabad India. Peter Ranasinghe was the Captain (he was also All-Ceylon Captain). We lost in the semi finals to the ultimate winners, Osmania University, by a solitary goal.”

Simple and unassuming to the very end.

A close friend of Henry, who worked with him at a previous Local Authority as a Town Planner, at very senior level recently said of him “He was an excellent Town Planner - probably the best I have ever me”.

Henry is survived by his wife Anna Szymańska, and son Stefan Szymańska

  By Dugald Gonsal     (on behalf of Old Bens George Abeydeera, Manoharan Alagarajah, Malcolm Boteju, Erken Caspersz, Eustace Caspersz, Happy Gomesz, Hilton Jayasekera, Eric Motha, Jim Nisar, C. Pathmanathan, Michael Paul, Russell Raymond, and Sidney Xavier)