Wycherley reveres ...
When he returned, he was appointed as the 3rd Surgeon at the General Hospital in Colombo. He retired from Government service in 1935 as a Senior Surgeon, and a lecturer at the Ceylon Medical College, but continued as a Consultant Surgeon. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1942 and a Companion of the Order of St. George in 1950, for his invaluable service in Medicine. Being a man steeped in simplicity and living a life on a low profile, he felt so undeserving of the latter award and had to be persuaded by the then Prime Minister Hon. D.S. Sennanayake into accepting it. He was President of the Ceylon Branch of the British Medical College from 1940 to 1946.
Though he was a Medical Doctor, his inner urge was always towards Anthropology. As an avid Naturalist, Dr. Spittel’s love was the jungles of Ceylon, gaining a store house of knowledge on its Fauna and Flora and also the native Aborigines called the Veddahs. He penned many books of which some of the well known ones were “Wild Ceylon”, “Wild White Boy”, “Vanished Trails” , “Where The White Sambhur Roams” which detailed jungle adventures and “Savage Sanctuary” which is a biographical novel based on documentary sources collected by Spittel himself on a Veddah Outlaw called Tissahamy. His white skin and his Medicine Man role made him so acceptable to the Veddahs as a hero.
Dr. Spittel was a perfect “spot on Surgeon”, despite his physical handicap of an arm that had to be treated for a Septecaemia for nine months. His love for wild life so enhanced his life that he recorded unedited footage of the Veddhas on 16 mm Cine Camera and which had been donated to the British Museum with copies to the Edinburgh Museum. These are today of immense anthropological value. He was a Surgeon par excellence, doing wonders with limited facilities and instruments, considered archaic today. He even undertook the first Skin Graft in Ceylon using his own blood for the first blood transfusion. He was by and large one of the fastest and surest of Surgeons Ceylon has ever known.
He retired from Government service at 53 years of age and ventured out to run his own Nursing Home called WYCHERLEY. This was his own building of heritage value today, which he started construction in 1920 and had the sprawling place complete by 1922. He was helped by his wife Clarie who was the 4th woman Physician in Ceylon. He passed away on September 3rd 1969 at Wycherley “with the sound of the Jungle Cock that lived in his aviary, in his ears”.
The Principal Mr. Kingsley Jayasinghe gave an introduction to the audience leading to the commemoration of Dr. Spittel’s 131st birth anniversary which was the focal point for the unveiling of the photograph of Dr. R. L. Spittel on January 13th 2012. Wycherley had the fortune of having Dr. Wilfrid Jayasuriya as the Chief Guest on this occasion. Dr. Jayasuriya holds an honours degree from the University of Ceylon, a Diploma in Economic Development from the Oxford University, and M.A. in English and PHD also in English, both from the Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in the U.S.A. He was the perfect choice for this occasion, as he even remembered his father being treated and permanently cured of a skin ailment by Dr. Spittel. He has been in touch with Christine Wilson – Dr. Spittel’s daughter – as Writers in the literary field. Dr. Jayasuriya was able to take the children on a brief journey with Dr. Spittel’s book “Savage Sanctuary” which certainly would have enlivened the interest of the children in Dr Spittel.
When Wycherley was founded in 1985 and was housed in Dr. Spittel’s heritage building, the owners of the school decided to retain the name of the school too as WYCHERLEY. So the name chosen by Dr. Spittel has lived this long length of time. This was the occasion where the Interact Club of Wycherley decided to honour this great personality – Dr. R. L. Spittel - to whom we owe the building that we are housed in now. Our students who enter the portals of this sprawling building and walk through its corridors and class rooms in the Junior School will always know the value of this wonderful gentleman who gave us this beautiful building.
When John Gay, said “Shadow owes its birth to light”, he was concise in his statement, that apart from a Doctor, a Writer was born into this world in Dr. R. L. Spittel. His portrait which was done by none other than David Paynter in 1937, was gifted by his daughter to the nation in 1991 and now hangs at the Art Gallery. Of Dr. R. L. Spittel it could be aptly said that “Heights of great men reached and kept, were not obtained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upwards in the night”. We at Wycherley are so indebted to him for his work so wide - ranging that have contributed to the enrichment of the life of everyone in Sri Lanka today. Dr. Spittel’s photograph, unveiled by the Principal Mr. Kingsley Jayasinghe, now adorns the Junior School Library - a room so dear to the heart of this great man. Every student will in the days ahead be interested in learning more about his life and works.