Dr. Grace Barr Kumarakulasinghe - Obituary

From: Muttuvelu Maheswaran <muttuvelumaheswaran32@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Apr 28, 2013 at 11:20 PM
Subject: Fwd: Obituary Dr Grace Barr Kumarakulasinghe
To:

DR. BARR KUMARAKULASINGHE - GRACE RAJAMALAR. Aged 104, loving wife of the late Mr. Gunaratnam and dearly beloved mother of Sudhir, went to be with the Lord. Mortal remains lie at A.F. Raymond’s Funeral Parlour, Borella. Service at 4.00 p.m. on Sunday 28th April and thereafter burial at the General Cemetery, Kanatte (Anglican Section). 43 1/2, Gregory’s Road, Colombo 07.            094100 

115-470-1-PB.pdf 210K   View   Download

Felicitation

Dr Grace Barr Kumarakulasinghe 

MRCP (E), DCH (Lond), LMS (Cey) 

Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health, 2008: 37: 105

Grace Barr Kumarakulasinghe (nee Sinnathamby) 

was born on the August 7, 1908, as the seventh child 

of G.V. and Alice Sinnathamby. She celebrated her 

100th birthday on August 7, 2008. Dr. Barr 

Kumarakulasinghe now lives with her son, Sudhir in 

Gregory’s Road Colombo. 

She first attended Wolfendhal Girl’s School, moved 

to Good Shepherd Convent Kotahena and finally to 

Ladies College where she obtained a first class at the 

matriculation examination. Her brother, Dr G S 

Sinnathamby, coaxed her into a career in medicine. 

She qualified as a doctor, with First Class Honours, 

from the Medical College, Colombo in 1937. 

In 1948, accompanied by her husband, she proceeded 

to the United Kingdom on a government scholarship. 

She returned to Ceylon in 1953 after obtaining the 

DCH (London) and the MRCP (Edinburgh). She was 

appointed to the Castle Street Maternity Hospital and 

in 1954 became the Founder Joint Editor of the 

Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, her co-editor 

being Dr. Siva Chinnathamby. 

In 1956 she was appointed to the Lady Ridgeway 

Hospital, Colombo. She was elected the President of

the Ceylon Paediatric Association in 1963. She took a 

keen interest in developing the premature baby units 

in De Soysa Maternity Hospital and Castle Street 

Hospital for Women. 

I first met Dr. Grace Barr Kumarakulasinghe when 

she was Consultant Paediatrician, Lady Ridgeway 

Hospital. I did my internship under her in 1967 and

she retired from Government Service soon after I 

completed my internship. At that time the present 

ward 8 was ward 10 and that was where she worked. 

Dr Mirando was the Consultant Paediatrician, ward 9

and Dr Stella de Silva, the Consultant Paediatrician, 

ward 8. Dr Sandrasagara, Consultant Paediatric 

Surgeon, was in ward 7, immediately below us. On 

the other wing of the Hospital were Professor Priyani 

Soysa in ward 1, Dr Walpita in ward 2 and Dr A F S 

Perera in ward 3. 

In those days there were only 2 interns in a ward. My 

co-house officer was Viji Ponnambalam from a 

senior batch who had started her internship 3 months 

late. Thus, for the last 3 months of my internship I 

had to work alone. The paediatric registrar was Dr 

Jayaratnam who was also a nephew of Dr Barr 

Kumarakulasinghe. During that time each of the 

medical units had to look after, in rotation, 3 other 

units viz. Premature Baby Unit, Diphtheria Ward and

Polio Ward. It was a hectic time but I really enjoyed 

working under Dr Barr Kumarakulasinghe who was 

very supportive of us. Working alone for 3 months 

really toughened me up and helped me a lot in later

life. 

On behalf of all paediatricians in Sri Lanka I salute 

and felicitate Dr Grace Barr Kumarakulasinghe, who 

is cognitively well and physically independent, on 

reaching her 100th birthday, a truly unique 

achievement. 

Dr. G N Lucas