Appreciations

The first time I saw Edward Grey was as far back as the early fifties when I was a teenage schoolboy. During this period tramcars were in use and the Colombo Fort terminal was opposite the present Grindlay’s Bank. One day, around 5 p.m. a classmate of mine and I left the College Hostel at Maradana, got into a tramcar and got down at Fort.

The then Colombo harbour passenger jetty was just opposite the Grand Oriental Hotel, and all the ship’s crew and passengers entered the city of Colombo from here.

A tall, well-built man was seen harassing a young beggar woman who was at the corridor of the G.O.H. Suddenly from nowhere, an athletically built man gave him a shot on his left shoulder blade, a blow on his solar plexus and another hard direct punch on to his face. The man was floored, his feet sagging. One of the persons in the crowd said that the person who hit the assailant was Eddie Grey, the Officer-in-charge of the Fort Police Station. After this I met him at several boxing meets when he functioned as a Referee and Judge.

Edward Ian Grey’s second death anniversary fell on September 21 this year. He died at the ripe old age of four score and five. This Sri Lankan boxing legend was laid to rest on September 27, 2004 at the Anglican parish of St. Stephen and St. Mary, High Street Road, Mt. Waverly, Melbourne, Australia. A large gathering had been present to pay their last respects to this Sri Lanka icon.

Eddie Grey was a product of Royal College, Colombo. He had been a college cadet and had captained the College at rugger, athletics and boxing, the latter being his forte.

He joined the Ceylon Police Force as a Sub-Inspector straight from college in 1937. In the Police too he had been outstanding in several fields. He represented Ceylon in boxing, in the lightweight division at the 1948 Olympics held in London, where Duncan White won a Silver medal in the 400 metres hurdles.

Again Eddie Grey represented Sri Lanka in Boxing in the 1950 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand.

He had the distinction of being physically present at two Olympic Games, one in 1948 in London and the other in 2000 in Sydney where two Sri Lanka athletes, Duncan White and Susanthika Jayasinghe won a Silver and a Bronze medal respectively for the country.

He was an excellent horse rider and was the first Ceylonese to be in charge of the Police stables, replacing the European officers. During this period he used to ride with the first Prime Minister of Sri Lanka D.S. Senanayake every morning and when the Prime Minister fell down from the Police mare ‘Chitra’ at the Galle Face Green on the morning of March 22, 1952 he took the Prime Minister to hospital after the accident.

The press at this time made a big ‘hue and a cry’ stating that the mare had stumbled and caused the fall. Eddie Grey, right throughout maintained that the mare never stumbled but the Prime Minister had fallen quite suddenly. His version was proved to be correct later when the famous neuro-surgeon Professor Juma who was flown from Pakistan to treat the Prime Minister confirmed that the Prime Minister had suffered a stroke whilst riding.

Eddie’s sense of fairplay was strong. Once when he was boxing at an international meet with Gene Raymond, his gum-guard had got dislodged from his mouth and had fallen on to the ground.

Raymond had bent down to pick the gum-guard. Eddie Grey had ample time to finish his opponent, but he took a step back and allowed Raymond to fix his gum-guard and continue fighting. Eddie Grey lost the bout but the loudest applause was for the looser.

Sub-Inspector Eddie Grey was Officer-in-Charge of the Habaraduwa Police Station during the 2nd World War and the Air Force camp at Koggala came under his jurisdiction. He was present in the camp, when the Catalina flying boats flew non-stop from the Swan river in Perth to Koggala led by Squadron Leader Leonard Birchill who was called the ‘Protector of Ceylon’. Coincidentally Sqn. Ldr. Birchill passed away in Canada four days before Eddie Grey. Birchill was 88 years old when he died.

Eddie Grey had been a distinguished police officer and had an unblemished record. He retired from the police service in 1957 the day the writer joined the service.

Though he was domiciled in Australia for the last quarter century, he was a frequent visitor here. He attended almost all the sports functions in Sri Lanka, like the Duncan White Foundation - Champions Trophy Cricket Tournament, 125th Royal-Thomian cricket encounter etc.

His death is a great loss to Sri Lankan sports bodies in general and to boxing in particular.