Eddie Gray - a man for all occasions!

The first time I saw Mr. Edward Gray 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 5.00 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 crew, passengers coming in ships, 'et al' entered the city of Colombo from here.

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

Edward Ian Gray's 2nd death anniversary fell on 21st September 2006. He died at the ripe old age of four score and five. This Sri Lankan boxing legend was laid to rest on the 27th September 2004 at the Anglican Parish of St. Stephen and St. Mary, High Street Road, Mt. Waverly, Melbourne, Australia. A very large gathering of people had been present to pay the last respects for this Sri Lanka icon. Major General Janaka Perera, the then Sri Lankan High Commissioner for Australia had represented Sri Lanka at the funeral.

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

He joined the Ceylon Police Force as a Sub-Inspector straight from college in 1937 and had dominated the next twenty years in the Police. 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 1950 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand.

Boxed at Olympics

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 Lankan athletes Duncan White and Susanthika Jayasinghe won a Silver and a Bronze medal respectively for the country. He boxed himself in 1948 and saw Duncan White win a silver.

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 horses 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 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 Gray, 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 got a stroke whilst riding.

Eddie's sense of being fair was correct. When he was boxing at an international meet with Gene Raymond. Gene's 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 Gray had ample time to finish his opponent, but he took a step back and allowed Raymond to fix his gum-guard and continued fighting. Eddie Gray lost the bout but the loudest applause was for the loser. That was the calibre of Eddie Gray.

Sub-Inspector Eddie Gray 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." Coincidently Sqn. Ldr. Birchill passed away in Canada four days before Eddie Gray. Birchill was 88 years old when he died.

Unblemished record

Eddie Gray had been a distinguished police officer. He had an unblemished record and had been in the forefront and not second to his peers or superiors in all respects. At the Habaraduwa Police Station, Sub-Inspector E.W. Jayakody succeeded Eddie Gray and Jayakody subsequently retired as a Deputy Inspector General of Police from the Western Province (North). Eddie Gray had all the necessary qualifications for his promotion to the rank of Asst. Suptd. of Police.

Then all the high offices in the department were held by Burghers and some say he was deprived of his promotion due to jealousy by them. Eddie Gray got disgusted of the police service and retired pre-maturely. Because of his love for boxing, he used to come to the police boxing ring at the Depot Police and coach the budding Police boxers.

He retired from the police service in 1957, the day the writer joined the service.

From the early fifties till the mid sixties, competitive boxing was at the Donovan Andree Stadium in Bambalapitiya.

The greatest showman Donovan Andree got down foreign boxers from aboard and there were exhibition bouts, practically at every weekend. Andree being a good friend of Eddie Gray he made arrangements for our boxers to fight with foreign boxers. Late brothers H.P. and C.P. Jayasuriya, Sumith Liyanage, all Olympic boxers from the Police, gained tremendous experience by this.

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 - Champion Trophy Cricket Tournament, 125th Royal - Thomian cricket encounter. His last visit to Sri Lanka was on 7th March 2004 where a plaque was unveiled at the Light House Hotel in Galle by the Australian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka in commemoration of the Catalina Flying Boats of 1942, which saved Sri Lanka from a major disaster.

Gray's death is a great loss to Sri Lankan sport bodies in general and to boxing in particular.

Good-bye Sweet Prince. May the turf lie softly over you.

Ananda Jayasena, - Borelesgamuwa.