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| Alfred de Silva with mother, Mrs. Don Davit around 1905 |
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Alfred de Silva/Abeydeera with mother, Mrs. Don Davit, around 1930
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1. Abeydeera Wijewickrema Punchihewage Don Davit de Silva of Ahangama / Gintota + Ms. Ratnaweera of Wackwella, Galle (Second Wife)
2. Abeydeera Wijewickrema Punchihewage Alfred de Silva, b. 1.5.1902 d. 16.8.1966, later (1927 ) known as Alfred Abeydeera, was the youngest son of A. W. P. Don Davit de Silva of Gintota, Galle & ? Ranaweera of Wackwella Galle.
Read about Don Davit' family & business empire here:
The firm of Don Davit & Sons , which had branches in Galle, Colombo & India was managed by Don Davit & three of his sons. The eldest son was sent to the UK for medical studies, & one son died in his teens. On completion of his studies, instead of joining the family business, Alfred decided to carve out a career for himself in the motor engineering trade, which was relatively new at the time & joined Rowlands Garage, Motor Engineers established in 1923 by A. P. Rowlands. He worked there throughout his career in different capacities & was a member of the then Institute of Automobile Engineers , UK.
Rowlands had a Coach Building Department as early as 1930 in charge of an Englishman, & a few years later, Alfred was assigned responsibilities there. It became a profitable venture for the company,
Along with A. P. Rowlands, he was closely associated with the design & construction of closed body buses, which were introduced to Ceylon in place of open body buses, (where the passengers got in from both sides of the bus and through a door at the back) based on the recommendation of a Commission appointed by the British government to look into shortcomings in bus transport. The closed body buses came to be known as 'Nelson body' buses, as the Commission was chaired by Mr. S. W. Nelson. These buses were built at Rowlands, Nawinna at the beginning, under his direction, but a few years later, the CTB established its own workshops at Werahera & Ekala for the purpose. He pioneered the construction of bus, lorry & van bodies on imported chassis, using aluminium , as the Works Manager, and later as a Director of the Coach Building Division at Rowlands , Nawinna.
He received international recognition for his work when he was Invited to England in 1958 for a period of 6 months by the Rootes Motor Company, which wanted him to carry out the work he did in Ceylon with aluminium, there.
He married Alice Maud Clark b. 24.6.1910 d. 6 .11.2005, daughter of Charles Edward Clark b. 1875 d. 1915, a planter in Ceylon & a member of the Tatham family in the UK, & Ponachi Amma b. 1885 d. 1952, in 1930. She had an elder sister, Mabel Therese b. 1904 d. 1988 & a younger brother David Clark b. 1914 d. 1960.
Alfred Abeydeera would have been 22 years old at the time of his father's death around 1924, & would have witnessed the many charitable acts performed by his father & mother. To follow their example would have been natural to him & he and his wife were extremely generous people, and never hesitated to help those in need, in numerous ways, whether they were relatives, friends or outsiders. He was a father figure to many of them & helped to uplift their lives.
2. Alfred Abeydeera + Alice Clark
Read about him & his family here :
3. Malini Abeydeera (died young)
3. Ivor Abeydeera (died young )
3. Clifford Abeydeera + Rita Gunasekera – Badulla
4. .........
4. ..........
4. .........
3. Maurice Abeydeera + Justine Constance (Dolly) Menon - Kandy4. Ramesh
4. Renuka
Read about him here :
| Maurice Titus Abeydeera [1, 2] |
| Birth | 28 Mar 1934 | Ceylon  [1] |
| Residence | 1975 | 83a Grange Rd, Ealing [3] |
| Death | Dec 1992 | Wandsworth [1] |
- One day while crossing the road in Harrow on a controlled crossing he was struck by a car. He was taken to hospital for observation and kept in a ward overnight. During the night he had a brain haemorrhage and was rushed to another hospital where he was operated on. He went into a coma and despite several attempts to revive him he remained in a permanent vegetative state for eight years before he passed away. [2]
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| Notes | - Passengers on Royal Rotterdam Lloyd "Wilhelm Ruys" dep Southampton 03 Sep 1957: 3rd class, dest Colombo, married, resid Ceylon, UK address 44 Leinster Gardens, Bayswater: Maurice Titus Abeydeera, b 28 Mar 1934, student; Justina Constance, wife, b 10 Jan 1935
- married to Jessica per NA
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| Person ID | I5790 | Tatham | Bloxham branch | Descendant |
| Last Modified | 15 Apr 2015 |
3. Nihal Abeydeera + Heather I. R. Dias in England
4. Michelle
4. ............
4. ...........
3. Gloria Abeydeera + P. K. Perera – Panadura
4. Shavanthi
4. Rajeev
4. Ruvani
3. Deanna Abeydeera + T. Aloy Perera of Colombo
4. Chrisantha Perera
4. Lasantha Perera
Deanna Abeydeera ÷ Gamini Jayasuriya of Colombo
4. Natasha Jayasuriya
4. Natalie Jayasuriya
Mrs. Abeydeera was a lover of music , song & the arts. She endeavoured to inculcate the same interests in her children & each of them was encouraged to play a musical instrument & they were provided the required facilities & training. However, identifying a talent for dancing in her youngest daughter, Deanna, she admitted her to the Yvonne Bradley School of Ballet Dancing at the age of 2 1/2 years & over the years with training locally & in the UK she became an accomplished ballerina & her success story can be read here & below;
htt://archives.dailynews.lk/2006/03/22/fin08.asp
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Abeydeera family: visit to Matara Convent
Nihal, Gloria & Theresa; with cousin Mary and daughter;
also adopted daughter Mary (in saree) |
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Alice Maud Clark (1910-2005) & family
Alice Maud Clark (married Alfred Abeydeera) in centre.
To her L: Clifford (son) & wife.
To her R: Gloria (daughter) & husband.
Background: office & factory of Rowlands
Garages, employers of her husband Alfred.
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Mrs. Abeydeera's sister, Mabel, was married to, Cornelius Ranasinghe, a close relation of President Ranasinghe Premadasa 's father , Richard Ranasinghe, and it is a little known fact that it was she ( Alice), who admitted the then Ranasinghe Premadasa to St. Joseph's College, Colombo for his secondary education.
The Ranasinghe's had 7 children : Laureen (UK), Patrick, Bernard, Honor, Rita (UK), Neomal (UK) & Indunil (UK).
Deanna Abeydeera
Anjana Samarasinghe
DANCING: Little Deanna was only two and half years old when she entered Yvonne Bradley's ballet class with her mother. Till the age of 10 she was not sure that she will continue with the ballet dancing.
But she never thought that her decision to continue with ballet would one day pave the way to become a principal of her own dancing school.
Training: Students hard at practices
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Going down memory lane Principal of Deanna School of Dancing Deanna Jayasuriya said ballet was a very expensive art at that time.
Teachers have to come from UK and the examination fee was very high.
My father was not much interested on this side and my mother had to save money that she got for housekeeping to make me the ballerina that I am today, she said.
When she was trained under Yvonne there she had a chance to learn Spanish dancing and tap dancing from a South African teacher. After Yvonne Bradley left for UK she joined with another dancing teacher as a student trainer.
When that teacher too left Sri Lanka, Deanna thought of going to UK to further her studies on dancing. In UK she had a chance to train under qualified teachers. In England she started her career as a ballet teacher with 20 students in a hired place and she worked as a teacher in UK for 10 years.
In 1980 when she came back to Sri Lanka her friends suggested that she should start dancing classes in Sri Lanka. She thought that will be a good idea just to occupy herself for once a week and she put an advertisement in the newspaper.
'I never thought there will be good response for my advertisement. There were 50 students for my first class. At the beginning I didn't have my own studio for classes. I had to hire a place.'
'But before 1980, I thought of conducting classes in Sri Lanka but I didn't have a proper place for dancing classes', she said.
Principal Deanna Jayasuriya
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By that time no examiner came from UK to conduct ballet examinations in Sri Lanka. But in 1983 Deanna was able to bring them back for examinations. Since 1980, she didn't look back and students who came for her classes grew daily.
Six years ago she was able to establish her own studio with the help of her husband at Longden Place. Today she has more than 450 students and conducts classes six days of the week for children as well as adults.
At present, Deanna teaches classical ballet and hip hop dancing. 'I have no time for Spanish dancing and tap dancing. My youngest daughter Natasha joined me after she completed her degree and now she is conducting hip hop dancing classes, ' she said. She is also a registered teacher of Royal Academic of Dancing in UK. Students of her school have done more than learn a few steps in ballet, today they are being accepted to the UK for the BA honour's degree in dancing.
Becoming a dancing teacher is very difficult.
A teacher should be always update about the syllabus that changes frequently. Hard work and commitment is essential for a dancing teacher, she said. She celebrated her 25th anniversary as a dancing teacher last year. Today some of her students are teaching ballet in UK, Australia, Norway and Japan. She expects to expand her dancing school joined together with another teacher.
'I hope to open another studio at the same place and open more classes for students.
Most young people were interested in Spanish dancing and the expansion will also focus on Spanish dancing and tap dancing', she said.
According to Deanna the grace and confidence earned by the dancer will supersede all other reasons for learning this art. Today some people learn ballet to keep fit but it is a complete work of art. Dancing is a highly professional business today.
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