Childhood to University, memoirs of an outstanding business leader

Today we begin excerpting from the memoirs of Desamanya Lalith de Mel, the first Sri Lankan to be appointed to the main board of Reckit and Colman, a top 100 British listed company. De Mel, M.A. (Cantab.), AMP (Harvard Business School), who joined the British multinational firm Reckitt and Colman in Sri Lanka, as a Marketing Manager retired from the Main Board of this company, a top 100 company in the UK. The first Sri Lankan and second Asian to be on the Board of any top 100 company in the UK.

He was also a British Government-nominated Director of CDC Plc, the 100%-owned Government company created to support development in poorer countries. He lived and worked in four countries, learnt fluent Portuguese (the language in Brazil) and middling Bahasa. He was on the Board of 26 group companies and came back to Sri Lanka and worked free for the Government in a variety of high-profile roles, reporting at various times to six different ministers.

At various times he was Chairman, Sri Lanka Telecom; Chairman, Board of Investment; Senior Adviser, Ministry of Finance; and Head of monitoring and implementation of major Government infrastructure projects; Director, People’s Bank; Director, State Enterprise Management Agency; Chairman, Tourism Cluster; and Director, National Council for Economic Development.

He made his knowledge and experience available to private sector companies in Sri Lanka and has been on the Board of 11 companies. When he retired he had worked for 55 years.

Lalith is a member of the well-known de Mel family from Moratuwa. His great-grandfather, Johannes de Mel, bought hundreds of acres of Crown land to plant coconuts, from the King of England, who owned all the land in Sri Lanka at the time . His father was Clinton de Mel. His mother, Lois, died when he was seven.

Mutwal was the posh residential area at the turn of the 20th century. Cinnamon Gardens was then akin to what Pelawatte was 20 years ago and viewed as an area that would develop. The extended de Mel family had bought 16 one-acre plots of land in Cinnamon Gardens and built houses on them in the early days of the 20th century. He lived in Gregory’s Road in one of these houses. All the houses on the road were on one-acre plots and every family had a large garden, an ideal cricket ground, and children used to spend their evenings playing cricket.

His father was a keen horseman and good rider. His house had stables at the end of the garden and an ex-Arab racehorse named Shian Aziz. Riding was something the well-to-do people did. D.S. Senanayake, the Prime Minister, was also a keen rider and was often seen having a gentle trot down Gregory’s Road, probably on his way to the Racecourse, which was a popular place to ride. From an early age he was taught to ride but he found this boring and gave up as soon as he could. He enjoyed belting around town on his bicycle or playing cricket rather than riding a horse round and round the Racecourse.

Lalith with his prize-winning bull Terrier and trophies

The family were dog lovers and always had dogs. They had different breeds at different times Labrador Retrievers, Fox Terriers, Pomeranians and Alsatians. His personal pets were Bull Terriers. He had some prizewinning Bull Terriers that he exhibited at the Kennel Club Shows and won many prizes (see photograph with his dog Maylands Malcolm, the Best Country Bred Dog and Reserve Best Dog at the show). He lost the Best in Show to an imported Boxer.

All the old families were dog lovers (which followed the tradition of aristocratic families in the UK where dogs were an. important part of the household). Mr. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike was also a dog lover and had an elegant imported greyhound called Farmer Rex.

School

He started his schooling at St. Bridget’s Convent, which was a short walk from home at the top of Gregory’s Road and then went on to St. Joseph’s College. He didn’t take his studies seriously at the outset and his recollection is that he was closer to the bottom end than the top. He told his father that he would start studying by the time he reached pre-senior school certificate (equivalent to pre-O/Level).

He did as promised and moved from last in the class to first. That year he won the class prize and three other prizes. He still remembers that, due to a breakdown in communication, his father did not attend the prize-giving. He also recalls being in hospital for two operations and no family spending the night with him there.

His daughter Chiara believes that it was these early episodes, being sent to England on his own, and having no family visiting him or attending his graduation – all of which were sensitive occasions – that led to the key trait in his character of always trusting only his judgment, and doing what he wanted, instead of depending on others.

He had an active school career, engaging in various activities. He played virtually every sport for his house and was a good athlete. He played badminton and rugby for St. Joseph’s. He was the Editor of the school paper called `New Horizons’.

Rugby was a high-profile sport. There were two well-known clubs in Colombo, the CR&FC, which was the club of the locals, and the CH&FC, exclusively for the whites. Many of the top English company executives played rugby for CH. Well-known Mark Bostock, later Chairman of John Keells, was a keen member of the CH&FC. He also started a jazz band named the Bohemians, and played jazz during lunch time.

A group of Josephians were keen to start rugby at St. Joseph’s. Fr. Peter Pillai, the Rector, was adamant not to bring rugby to college. This group of boys was equally determined to bring rugby there. Chrisantha Fernando, who was the cricket captain at the time, and Lalith started a team named the Josephian Hornets. Chrisantha left shortly afterwards to England to pursue his studies and Lalith was elected captain.

Both the leading Colombo clubs, CH and CR, were very supportive and allowed the Hornets to use their grounds for practice and matches. They also each provided a coach. The press gave a lot of publicity to the Hornets when they played as they supported the idea of getting another school to play rugby. After two years of Hornets, Fr. Rector relented and St. Joseph’s played rugby from 1955.

University

There was a tradition in his family that all the male boys were sent to England for their university education. He had five older male cousins; three of them went to Oxford and two of them who did Medicine went to London. His younger cousin studied Medicine in London as well. When it was time to go to university, his father was determined that he should apply to Cambridge. He did this with great reluctance, as all his friends were going to the University of Ceylon in Peradeniya and he too wanted to go there and study English, which was his favourite subject.

But the parental pressure could not be opposed. It was an era when children had to listen to and obey their parents. So he applied to Cambridge and was duly accepted. He got a place at Peterhouse, the oldest college in Cambridge University.

Prior to going to Cambridge, his father took him to meet various senior business personalities. Their suggestion was that he should study Economics and he was pushed into studying Economics. He had never studied it before. He borrowed a book from his cousin who had studied Economics, and read that book on the ship to London to find out a little more about Economics en route to London.

In 1955, he was put on a boat and sent off to England, clutching his cousin’s book on Economics. He went by himself, no parents accompanied him and after a two – and- a-half-week voyage, arrived in London. The family used a private bank called Richardson’s. The funds were sent to them to pay the bills and to give the agreed weekly amount as pocket money.

After three weeks in London, again by himself, with his suitcases, he took the train from King’s Cross Station to Cambridge. He was shrouded in anxiety on the train, wondering how he would fit in at a university full of British undergrads, whether he could cope with the studies and pass the exams, whether his English was good enough for Cambridge, and whether he would be happy or miserable. Throughout the train journey he kept turning these thoughts around in his mind.

When the train arrived at Cambridge, he took a taxi and went to Peterhouse. All the new boys were coming in their family cars, accompanied by their fathers and mothers. There was lot of hugging and kissing, and there was no one to hug and kiss him as he was on his own.

The porter showed him to his rooms. That was the first thing that cheered him as it was a nice set of rooms, with a large sitting room, a fireplace and an attached bedroom. That was the beginning of the university journey.