This gentle being will surely be missed by all
A Royalist by school and by nature, Eustace Bryan Pereira, cricketer, rugby, and tennis player to the end, left his earthly sojourn on April 3, 2019 aged 78 years, peacefully and in keeping with his genteel character without fuss or bother to those around him. In short, as the Roman philosopher of yore, Seneca the younger, wrote “De Brevitate Vitae (English:on the shortness of life) Bryan too, did not escape the eternal law. A man of few words, Bryan was best described in Shakespeare’s play HenryV that “men of few words are the best men.”
The writer was fortunate to play for the Royal College first XI cricket team alongside both Bryan and his elder brother Lorenz. Both the siblings had the proud distinction of playing in the Royal-Thomian cricket team and for the Bradby Rugger match. To Bryan’s eternal credit when he was the captain of the Tennis team, Royal College, for the first time, won the Senior (de Saram) and Junior (Lang) Shields. This is not all. Bryan was awarded the first XI batting prizes on two successive years – 1960 and 1961. Naturally he was selected for the Combined Schools Cricket team and toured India under the captaincy of Mitra Wettimuny. On leaving schools he played in the P. Saravanamuttu Trophy tournament for the elite club Nondescripts.
Bryan was the middle son of the legendary founder of the Faculty of Engineering, Professor E.O.E. Pereira and Mavis, the youngest being Alan. Both Lorenz and Alan are domiciled Down Under. Bryan married Charminstar, daughter of Dr. & Mrs V.C. de Silva. They have one daughter Shalini and both she and her husband Rohan de Silva were Sri Lanka’s No.1 ranked Tennis players at one time. Obviously the genes played its part. Rohan has been the Manager of the Sri Lanka Davis Cup team while Shalini is a respected tennis coach. Needless to say their son Akash was the apple of Bryan’s eyes.
Bryan was a hard-working and popular planter in the tea country for over 20 years, and the tennis racquet was not far from his hand, with him winning many Up Country tennis tournaments.
On his retirement in 1995, after trying his hand at various, though frustrating occupations, he decided to retreat to the restful abode of Shalini and Rohan at Rajagiriya. Of course, tennis was his main means of sustenance. Each evening he would leave to the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) courts with a racquet in one hand and the inevitable cigarette in the other. This was not only to play a game or two but also to meet his friends with whom he shared mutual feelings of camaraderie. His innumerable friends at the SLTA will surely miss this gentle being.
As Horatio, at the death of his best friend Hamlet, said: “Now cracks a noble heart – Good night, sweet prince, may the angels sing you to sleep.”
The Bard had the likes of Bryan in his mind when he wrote these immortal lines. Mahinda Wijesinghe