Samudra Ratwatte

Samudra Ratwatte who passed away recently at the age of 88-years will be specially remembered for the two delightful little books she wrote on her life and times. She was born a Rambukwella and had her early education at Bishop’s College, Colombo, along with her sister, Sagarica who was head girl of the school in the 1950s. Samudra married Newell Rawatte, a tea planter who was a first cousin of Prime Miniser Sirima Bandaranaike.

After marriage, she spent nearly two decades on many upcountry tea estates during the last days of the British plantation raj. Her husband, Newell, was one of the early Ceylonese tea planters upcountry working on British-owned properties. Samudra enjoyed this life during a more spacious era made and friends with many of the British planters of that time.

In the two books she wrote, Tea and Memories and Valley of Green Memories she has described life on the tea plantations in remote upcountry areas like Madulsima. In these two books, she gives us a flavour of life on the estates when the British owned and ran them. There are very few first hand accounts of plantation life of that time and the glimpses of a vanished era she offers us are indeed of great historical value.

Her husband, Newell, passed away relatively early in life and Samudra had a long widowhood. During the latter part of her life, she was cared for by Sagarica, who was married the well known journalist, Lucian Rajakarunanayake. Samudra had enoromous knowledge of Kandyan families – the Dissawes and the Rate Mahattayas of her time and before, to whom her husband and she were connected in various ways. She was thinking of writing another book on this subject but failing health intervened.

Leelananda De Silva