{"id":50932,"date":"2020-10-07T13:53:03","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T13:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/?p=50932"},"modified":"2021-12-27T05:26:43","modified_gmt":"2021-12-27T05:26:43","slug":"the-joseph-family-of-british-ceylon-service-to-mankind-across-the-oceans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/the-joseph-family-of-british-ceylon-service-to-mankind-across-the-oceans\/","title":{"rendered":"The Joseph Family of British Ceylon: Service to Mankind across the Oceans"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Joseph Family of British Ceylon: Service to Mankind across the\u00a0Oceans<\/span><\/h1>\n

Joe Simpson.\u00a0<\/strong>reproducing his article<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0…………………..\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/www.worldgenweb.org\/lkawgw\/sid.html<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This dashing military-style portrait is of\u00a0Sidney Percival Joseph\u00a0<\/strong>(1873- 934) who was one of 15 children of Arthur Francis Joseph\u2019s younger brother\u00a0Eugene\u00a0<\/strong>(1839-1915) and his wife,\u00a0Georgiana Jemima (nee Ohlmus)\u00a0<\/strong>(1848-1906). Sidney would thus have been a nephew of Arthur Francis Joseph (\u201cAFJ\u201d) and Eugenia, and a first cousin of Lawrence Joseph and his brothers. As the two cousins were almost exactly the same age,\u00a0Sidney and Lawrence were probably\u00a0childhood friends and remained so after Lawrence Joseph (later Joseph Lawrence) moved permanently to Scotland in the early 1890s.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Joseph\"<\/p>\n

This photograph has been\u00a0with the Canadian branch of the Lawrence family for several generations \u2013 Hugh Lawrence\u2019s brother Brian, who lives in Kelowna, south-central British Columbia, Canada, recently unearthed it in his collection. Still visible in dark blue ink against\u00a0the dark brown backing to this photograph are the neatly handwritten words:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWith\u00a0Love\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Siddie<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 London<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 9th August 1902<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Coronation Day\u201d.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

For years no-one in the Lawrence family in Canada or Scotland knew for certain who \u201cSiddie\u201d was.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

An obituary published in the\u00a0JDBU\u00a0of 1934<\/strong>\u00a0describes\u00a0Dr. Sidney Percival Joseph<\/strong>\u00a0L.R.C.P. & S. (Edinburgh) and L.F.P. & S. (Glasgow) as \u201cso useful a citizen, so excellent a man\u201d.\u00a0When he retired from Government service to settle down in Colombo, he had served 27 continuous years in Ceylon\u2019s scattered outstations as a Medical Officer \/ Provincial Surgeon working for the Medical department.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>According to\u00a0Who\u2019s Who of Ceylon 1918-20\u00a0<\/em>his postings included Maskeliya and Trincomalee, and he was promoted to Grade 1 in May 1918, at which time he was living in Balapitiya.<\/span><\/p>\n

Note the uniform that the young Dr. Sidney Percival Joseph (\u201cSiddie\u201d) is wearing in this photo. He joined the volunteer militia body known as the\u00a0Ceylon Light Infantry<\/strong>\u00a0(CLI<\/strong>) in 1890, at age 17, and was posted to Bearer Company as a Private.\u00a0His presence (aged 29) in London in 1902 was due to his being a member of the CLI contingent that attended the coronation of King Edward VII that year.<\/strong>\u00a0At the time, Sidney was a L.\/Sgt. in the CLI. In 1911 he went on to be a member of the\u00a0Ceylon Volunteer Medical Corps<\/strong>\u00a0(CMC<\/strong>) when it became a separate unit. He was commissioned as a Lt. in the CMC in 1920, and on October 2, 1925 received the Colonial Auxiliary Forces Officers\u2019 Medal when he was a Lt. in the CMC. (This allowed him to put the initials \u201cV.D.\u201d after his name, short for Voluntary Decoration, the medal awarded to commissioned officers in the Colonial Auxiliary Forces). He was a Captain-Major in the CMC between 1927-33, at which date he was posted to Reserve (aged 60) before passing away the next year.<\/span><\/p>\n

A much later photograph shown below, the original of which is in the possession of Shelagh Gunawardene, shows Dr. Sidney Joseph wearing three medals:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n