The e-mail, with the question “Are you a Ceylon Braine?”,
arrived out of the blue when I lived in Hong Kong. The writer - I’ll call her
Susan - had found me on the Internet. She went onto detail some family history,
and claimed that, because she and I shared great, great grandparents, we were
third cousins. Family history had been an interest since she was 10 years old.
She had inherited a collection of family documents and a photo album, and also
found family documents from research in the UK. She mentioned that both my
great, great grandfather and great grandfather had been planters in Ceylon.
This came as a huge surprise. Not having delved into
family history, I was under the impression that my grandfather was the first Braine
to arrive in Ceylon. Instead, from Susan’s information, I realized that my
English roots went back at least five generations in Ceylon.
From older relatives – my father and his eight siblings -
I had never heard of a great grandfather, let alone a great, great grandfather.
My English grandfather, Charles Stanley Braine, had passed away six years
before I was born, and his photo hung at my grandmother’s house at Boralessa,
in the Lunuwila area. My father and his siblings talked fondly about “daddy”,
but never about a “grandpa”.
Family photos and documents were scattered among my
uncles and aunts. When most of them emigrated to the UK and Australia starting
in 1963, these photos and documents were gone with them. But, over the years,
with the help of Susan and a friend in London, and my travels during which I
visited far flung relatives, I have collected old photos and documents, and pieced
together family history. More historical documents are coming online, and
ancestry websites are in business, and that, too, has helped.
Charles
Stanley Braine, my grandfather
Charles Stanley was born in Ceylon on 25 December 1874. He
was the eldest son of Charles Frederick Braine and Adeline Mary Becher, who had
married in London earlier that year.
Like his father, uncles, and grandfather, Charles Stanley
took to planting, starting at East Holyrood Estate, Talawakelle, in 1898, at
the age of 24. After six years at this tea plantation, he moved to Mawatta
Estate, a coconut plantation in the hot and humid north western province, in
1904. The reason for his move from the lush and salubrious hill country to the
hot and humid NWP is not known.
After switching to nearby Yakwila Estate for brief
periods, he finally returned to Mawatta Estate in 1914, and continued there for
30 more years. Though coconut plantations, Mawatte and Yakwila were owned by
Ceylon Tea Plantations Co. Ltd. As on tea and rubber plantations, most workers
on these coconut estates were Tamils who had been brought from South India.
Hence, Tamil was the lingua franca
and Charles Stanley spoke Tamil. The workers called him “Rajah”, which meant
king.
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| Coconut husks. The fibers are made into ropes. |
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Coconuts drying in the sun
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About 550 acres in extent, Mawatte Estate also had a
fiber mill, a copra kiln, an office, a spacious bungalow for the manager,
quarters for staff members and line rooms for the workers, and a network of
gravel roads. The estate owned two barges (called “padda boats”) to transport
copra to Colombo. The barges were moored
on the nearby Hamilton Canal, and double-bullock carts transported the copra
from the estate to the barges, which took 10 hours to reach Colombo. On the
return journey, they brought groceries for the estate workers.
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| Barges on Hamilton Canal |
Perhaps around 1907, Charles Stanley, who was unmarried,
began a liaison with a Sinhalese worker at the estate’s fiber mill, named Engracia
Nonis. She was a resident of Boralessa village, only a couple of miles from
Mawatte Estate. They came from very different
backgrounds, he from a line of English planters, who as the colonial rulers of
Ceylon had immense power and influence, and she from a poor family. She did not
speak English, and he did not speak Sinhala. They spoke to each other in Tamil.
Such liaisons were not uncommon, especially on
lonely hill country estates. Because they were taboo and frowned upon by other
Europeans, they were carried on surreptitiously, and the women and the
resulting children were not always acknowledged. Charles Stanley’s liaison was
no secret, because he invited Engracia to reside in his bungalow, and when the
children began to arrive, accepted paternity. But, his widowed mother was
living in Ceylon, at Nuwara Eliya, and his siblings were also in Ceylon. We do
not know how his family reacted to Charles Stanley’s interracial, common law
marriage. Their eldest child Roselind was born in June 1909, and Charles Stanley’s
mother left Ceylon two months later.
Charles Stanley and Engracia had nine children, six girls and
three boys. The daughters were Roselind, Lucy, Amy, Alice, Katherine, and
Bridget. George, Benjamin, and Theobald (Teddy) were the sons. |
| Engracia and children at The Meet, circa 1940 |
By all accounts, Charles Stanley was a loving father,
affectionate and generous to his large brood. He built a spacious house at
Boralessa, named “The Meet”, where Engracia and the children resided most of
the time. Engracia had relatives in the
village who helped her to bring up the children and manage the household.
During school holidays, she and the children stayed at Mawatte Estate.
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| Galloway |
Engracia and the children were provided with cars at a time when
they were a rarity. The first was a limited edition Galloway, followed by a
Morris Isis Six, a 6-cylinder model. They later owned a Hillman Minx, and a
smaller Austin 7 (“baby” Austin). Two drivers, Liyander and Marshall, were
employed.
Charles Stanley bought a 50-acre property in nearby Dankotuwa,
which he named "Greenwood", for his wife and children. He built a
large house, "Stanlodge” at Negombo, the nearest town, so that his
children could attend school there. He also bought about 6-acres of land at
Boralessa, expanding “The Meet” holding. Most interestingly, he built a pond so that his
children and their friends could swim and enjoy themselves.
For the family, perhaps the most memorable time was
Christmas, because it was also Charles Stanley’s birthday. He would order baskets of flowers and fruits from the hill country where
his brother, superintendent of Penyland Estate, Dolosbage, lived. M.P. Gomes
& Co. of Negombo, the only merchant dealing in foreign groceries in the
area, was instructed to give Engracia everything she and the children needed for
Christmas. “The Meet” was filled with presents, bon-bons, balloons, and a
Christmas tree. After returning from midnight mass, the children would go to Mawatta
Estate to wish Charles Stanley a happy birthday.
They also held a Christmas party for the
villagers at “The Meet”. Sweets were served, the women played the “rabana” - a large,
horizontally placed communal drum - firecrackers were lit, festive games were
played, and gifts distributed to the children from a Christmas tree.
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| Mawatte garden |
My father Teddy, the youngest child, fondly recalled life at
Mawatte Estate with “daddy”. The
bungalow had a lovely garden with flowers and fruit trees. Meals were served at
a vast dining hall with a long table, the “Appu” (butler) at hand serving. At
night, the bungalow was lit by Petromax and kerosene lamps, there being no
electricity at the time. There was no radio either, and music was played on the
gramophone. On warm days, during meals, the Appu would stand at the end of the
dining hall and pull a rope which was connected to a large canvas cloth
(“punkah”) hung above the table to cool the diners.
Though an Anglican, Charles Stanley associated with the local
Catholic clergy and was a benefactor, mainly because Engracia was a devout
Catholic. All the children were baptized Catholics. As the family grew, much
pressure was brought upon Charles Stanley by Catholic clergy to formalize their
relationship. Perhaps due to the influence of other British planters, and also
of his family, he dithered. He eventually relented, and Charles Stanley and
Engracia were married at a Catholic church on 24 May 1924. Both attesting
witnesses were Catholic nuns, which is telling: Sr. Mary of St. Solange and Sr. Mary of
St. Antony.
Shipping
records show that, over the years, Charles Stanley took a number of trips to
the UK. He traveled alone.
For his travels around the Mawatte Estate, Charles Stanley used
a single-bullock drawn cart called a hackery. These carts were fast on short trips.
Going downhill one day, the bull panicked, the carter lost control, and the
hackery overturned. Charles Stanley was thrown some distance and suffered
serious injury.
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| A hackery (Not Charles Stanley in photo.) |
After
hospitalization, he chose Negombo, a seaside town, for his recuperation. Although
he owned a house (“Stanlodge”) close to the beach, he chose to stay with a Mr.
Grenier who ran a boardinghouse for the English. “Stanlodge” was already
occupied by some of his children. Three of his daughters and a son were married
by then.
This
was wartime, and British troops were stationed in Negombo, so Charles Stanley
had opportunities for interactions with his countrymen. My father Teddy, who was
schooling at Negombo, recalled cycling over to visit his father.
Charles Stanley’s last days were spent in a wheelchair, and he
passed away on February 11, 1944. Contemplating his end, he wrote to daughter
Alice, saying “I hate the sight of people in black” and asking his family to
dress in white at his “simple, no flowers” funeral.
His end was not peaceful (but that’s another story) and he was
buried at the Anglican section of Negombo’s general cemetery. Charles Stanley was
70 years old.
Engracia lived on for 32 years. She was sweet and affectionate
and often talked about her husband. As a fifth generation Braine, I have a
home, “Pondside”, at Boralessa. Grandmother Engracia’s relatives, the Nonises, still
live in the village.
Sinnaiah
Remembers
A few years ago, I was
told about an elderly man who lived at Mawatta Estate, who still remembered
Charles Stanley, a full 70 years after the latter had passed away.
Sinnaiah was 90 when we
met five years ago. He had grown up on Mawatte Estate, privileged because his
father was the head “kangany” (field supervisor). Sinnaiah says Charles Stanley
took a liking to him, allowed him to hang around the estate bungalow, and
occasionally took him on short journeys. He has been to “Stanlodge” in Negombo,
the 50-acre “Greenwood” property, and “The Meet” at Boralessa many times.
Sinnaiah also recalls the
morning routine on the estate. The workers would line up outside the office early
morning for the roster, when their attendance was recorded and were allocated
to various tasks on the estate. The fiber mill had its own workers. Coconuts
were husked, split in two before being sun dried and smoked in the copra kiln. The
children gorged on “pelapihi”, the snow-white sweet pulp within sprouting
coconuts.
Once a week, Charles
Stanley took the train to Colombo to bring money to pay the workers. On
Saturday, at noon, the workers lined-up at the office. The salaries were paid
in gold coins, known as “sovereigns” (worth about Rs. 12/ at that time) and
silver coins. The coins were counted and arranged in piles on a table in the
office. When their names were called, the workers had to sign a “pay sheet”
before collecting their salary. Many workers were illiterate, and placed their
thumbmark on the pay sheet instead of a signature.
Sinnaiah’s father, the field
supervisor, had told him how Charles Stanley and Engracia met. He had seen her at
the fiber mill on the estate and arranged for her to move into his bungalow,
with her own room and a servant to take care of her!
The bungalow was large,
with a wide verandah, and hanging lamps in every room. Charles Stanley loved
his bath, so water had to be heated and the bath tub filled manually. He loved
dogs, and always had fox terriers. English planters from nearby estates would visit
and stay for drinks and dinner, and the sound of laughter could be heard late
into the night.
Charles Stanley was a
benevolent manager. Sinnaiah says he had a “big heart” and looked into the
welfare of his workers. He provided free lunch to all the children on the
estate, and when workers were ill, sent them to the Dankotuwa hospital with a
note to the doctor.
Sinnaiah remembers the hackery
that Charles Stanley rode. It was pulled by a tall white bull, and the carter’s
name was Antony. Charles Stanley was badly injured in the accident when the
cart overturned, and was carried to the bungalow. When word of the accident
spread, the workers rushed to the bungalow and crowded around his bed, wailing
“Rajah, Rajah” and beating their breasts.
Charles Stanley was the
son and grandson of planters. Planting, and the smooth management of a large
work force, ran in his blood. He won the hearts of his workers.
Nearly 80 years after his
death, “Stanlodge”, “Greenwood”, and “The Meet” are no more. Mawatte Estate,
plundered by employees and politicians, partially divided among the landless,
is barely half its original size. The large bungalow has been demolished, and
replaced by a shabby, smaller one. The fiber mill is gone.
If Charles Stanley Braine
was to return, he would be heartbroken.
Planters from nearby estates. Charles Stanley is with a hat on his lap.
A wedding party of British planters, wives and children. Charles Stanley in back row, center.
