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Ashley Wijesinha who livened up the Sunday Times

Subs Desk, especially on deadline-frenzied Saturdays, for a long time, passed away on January 15. He was 84 years old.

Ashley was laid to rest at the cemetery of the beautiful and imposing Holy Emmanuel Church in Moratuwa, at sunset, after a grand send-off with the Dead March being played in church and his cortege being led by two flag bearers, one carrying the Salgado family flag (his wife belongs to the well known Salgado clan in Moratuwa); a fitting tribute to a man who was loved by one and all. I could imagine Ashley watching it all from a side with that impish smile of his.

Ashley was one of the older generation fountains of wisdom at the Subs Desk, especially when it came to historical facts, geography and place names. Instead of referring the imposing Survey Dept. map of Sri Lanka, that stood tall at the Subs Desk, the younger subs would holler out to Ashley for clarification of place names. A meticulous and hard working sub editor, Ashley was one you could always rely on. With an eye for spotting many a printers’ devil, he was unofficially the ‘obit man’ too, as he would make it a point to carefully scan the obituary notices before they went into print to see that all was in order, sometimes going that extra mile of calling the household of the deceased to clarify a name, address etc.

Aside from being the committed and knowledgeable journalist that he was, Ashley’s small frame and knack of blithely making utterances, that were invariably given a twist by some of his colleagues, made him an easy target for bullying; all done in harmless jest, of course. I would be the school ma’am pulling them up asking them to show respect for Ashley’s age and seniority, but he seemed to enjoy the banter, and fooling around that brought out the kid in him.

His mop of hair and agile ways belied his age and he was a great believer in the difference between a person’s biological and chronological age. He enjoyed hopping a bus from Moratuwa to office until ill health forced him to come by cab to work. These trips by bus were not without their share of excitement and he would invariably regale us with stories made up of his observations on fellow commuters in addition to zeroing-in on pickpockets.

He loved to take an occasional trip down memory lane, and one of his favourite stories of growing up in Kandy, during World War 11, was how he and his siblings would take a peek at big-made Afro-American soldiers bathing butt-naked at a neighbourhood well. He would recall this incident on and off with childlike glee and a chuckle. And I would say, “I’ve heard that story so many times Ashley.”

Another was of fond memories of his days in Pattipola, when his father was stationed there as Station Master. For a long time Ashley’s office desktop image was one of a mistcovered Pattipola railway station.

An aficionado of old classic films and one with an eye for beauty, Ashley had a few on screen and offscreen ‘goddesses’too.

Dear old Ashley, although you had to stop working due to ill health more than six months ago we would still keep in touch with an occasional telephone call.

Now, you are no more and all of us will cherish those happy memories when you were an integral part of the Subs Desk.

Rest in peace, dear Ashley.