( vi ) 



up with it as it wore side by side, shared in its sorrows and its 

 joys, and has died at a time when it is once more regaining a 

 stability, with which he has had much to do, and now, after 

 devoting his life to the land of his adoption, he has returned 

 to his native land, only to die, fortunately however, surrounded 

 by the members of his family. It is a history that we of a 

 younger generation would do well to ponder over. A life 

 devoted to the country in which he lived, a life of devotion, 

 alike when in affluence and poverty, in health or in sickness. 

 Of this phase of his character we are, perhaps, better able to 

 speak than any one else. For six years he laboured as Editor 

 of this journal, and the longer we had an opportunity of 

 witnessing his indomitable courage and energy, his deep 

 erudition, and the brilliancy of his marvellous intellect, the 

 more were we bound to respect him. Nothing but the most 

 serious illness would keep him away from his desk at office, 

 and it was only under the most pressing orders of his doctors, 

 and the earnest persuasion of his colleagues, that he was 

 induced, eighteen months ago, to go up to Nuwara Eliya, 

 where it was hoped that the invigorating climate would give 

 him a longer lease of life. Even while in the hills he directed 

 and controlled the policy of the paper he loved so well while it 

 was being published 130 miles away, and the amount of work 

 he got through in that lonely cottage in the sanitarium cannot 

 be appreciated by any one more than it was by the staff of this 

 paper. As regularly as the postman made his appearance, 

 there came a budget of manuscript from Mr. Wall, invariably 

 accompanied by a letter full of the most valuable advice and 

 encouragement, occasionally blended with a kindly-put 

 criticism, which was always deserved. Never was there a 

 firmer or kindlier head of a department. His vast experience 

 in life had taught him a knowledge of the ways of men and 

 things that he well knew how to use. 



We hardly as yet realize the loss we have sustained, neither 

 we fancy can Ceylon itself. As a public man George Wall was 

 unique. There were, of course, times when his opinions and 

 his advocacy of them were not appreciated as he would have 

 liked them to have been, but even his opponents could not but 

 admire his pluck and the determined way in which he fought. 



