Memories of RAF Negombo Ceylon, 1950 - 1952

By Ben Bennetts

As a young boy, I lived for two years between 1950 and 1952, in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, with my parents and sister. My father was in the Royal Air Force and we were based at RAF Negombo, not far from Colombo. This is an account of my life there.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ben Bennetts
• Release date: Oct 2, 2012
• ISBN: 9780957321847

Ben Bennetts

After retiring in December 2007 from a busy career as a consultant electronics engineer, I took up walking long-distance trails both in my home country (UK) and in other places such the Himalaya in Nepal, the Sierra Nevada in Spain, and the levadas in Madeira. These activities kept me physically fit. To stay mentally fit, I started a blog (https://ben-bennetts.com) and began writing books. To date (February 2021), I've published twenty-one books on topics as diverse as religion, winemaking, an erotic novel (using the pseudonym, J C Pascoe), two storybooks for children, various autobiographies, idiosyncrasies of the English language, long-distance walking, keeping fit as we age, how to create and self-publish either an ebook or a paperback book, a book of cartoons, and a series of blog collections. You can read more about the books on my website, ben-bennetts.com/books. The books are available as e-books on www.smashwords.com and in Amazon's Kindle Store. Contact me at [e-mail]

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Memories of RAF Negombo Ceylon, 1950 – 1952

‘Ben’ Bennetts

Assisted by Maureen Wyatt (neé Bennetts)

[e-mail]

My father was stationed in RAF Negombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in the early ‘50s. I joined him along with my mother and sister. This is an account of my life in the camp, my first experience of living outside of the UK. The essay tells of trips to the jungle, life on the camp, long troopship journeys, encounters with wild animals (some in the living room), and falling in love for the first time (I was 10 years old!).

Copyright © 2014, ‘Ben’ Bennetts

Published by Atheos Books at Smashwords

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment. The eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please buy an extra copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not buy it, or it was not bought for your use only, then please return to the retailer and buy your own copy. Thank you for respecting my hard work.

First published 2012.

Revised 2014 (better formatting, better images, grammar improvements, removal of end notes)

ISBN 978-0-9573218-4-7

Front cover: train approaching Diyatalawa.

Table of Contents

1950. The journey out.

1950-52. Living in Ceylon

1952. The journey back.

Appendix. Camping in the jungle.

Photograph gallery

About the author

Books by Ben Bennetts

Preface to the revised 2014 edition

In 2012, when I first started thinking about re-publishing my paperback book on religion as an e-book, I quickly realised that the tricky bit would be handling the graphics in the original book. E-books are based on reflowable text and inserting graphics