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
