Home is where trhe heart is

By Rangi Akbar - Daily Mirror Mon July 30 2007

Ever wondered what happened to sports stars of the past such as Dhanasiri Weerasinghe, ‘Brute’ Mahendran, Maxim Flamer Caldera, Geoff Weinman, Dr. Larry Foenander etc.
Dhanasiri Weerasinghe led Ananda and later played for Bloomfield and Ceylon. He was Chairman of Selectors for Ceylon Cricket when Michael Tissera led the team. He now owns a 100 - acre farm in the Melbourne hills.

‘Brute’ Mahendran, an Old Trinitian and an Old Royalist, was the national champion in shot-put and was also the national heavyweight boxing champion. ‘Brute’ also represented the country in rugby-football.

It is said that in one day at 2.30 P.M. he won the national championship in shot-put and at 4.30 P.M represented the CR&FC to win the Clifford Cup final. Later in the evening at 8.00 P.M, he won the national heavy weight crown in boxing. A rare achievement for a sportsman!
‘Brute’, is nicknamed thus due to his size and sheer strength. He used to carry several opponents, who were trying to bring him down, on his back to score tries against opponents. He captained Police rugby during the sixties. He retired as Deputy Inspector General of Police prematurely and migrated to Australia with his doctor wife and children. In Australia he passed out as a lawyer and worked for the Government. He is now happily living in retirement.
Former Police rugby skipper S. Sivendran, who brought the Police rugby team to the A Division and the coveted Clifford Cup in the sixties was in Australia recently on the invitation of his eldest sister Padma Thangarajah, who lives in Sydney with her husband N. Thangarajah and their three daughters. They have two sons who are engineers and accountants. Padma is a retired graduate teacher who had her education at Methodist Girls High School, Point Pedro where she.excelled in athletics and netball. Her husband is a retired Superintendent of Surveys.
In Melbourne Sivendran had met Dhanasiri Weerasinghe, who had been his batch and roommate when he joined the Police Force as a Sub Inspector.

“Dhanasiri owns a hundred-acre farm in the hills. He took us there and we spent a day at the Farm House”, said Siva.

Another outstanding sportsman Siva had met in Melbourne is Micheal Schockman, a former Trinity College boxer, cricketer and rugby player and his wife Margo. Schokman played and captained Police rugby and Sivendran had played alongside him for several years.
“Schokman is actively involved in umpiring cricket matches for Victoria State. He is a qualified umpire, ” said Siva,

Sivendran had also witnessed Australia play England in a one-day match at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds which had been packed to capacity.

Another outstanding rugby player whom Siva had met in Australia is Maxim Flamer Caldera. Maxim manned the wing for S.Thomas College, Mount Lavinia at rugby, Havelocks Sports Club and Ceylon before migrating to Australia. He is a successful businessman Down Under. Maxim’s late father, Alan Namer Caldera was a Superintendent of Police in Sri Lanka before migrating to Australia. His sister Jilska Flamer Caldera was the national 110 metres hurdling champion in the sixties. She too is married and settled down in Sydney.Geof Weinman, the former Royal College, CR&FC and Ceylon wing forward is now living in Sydney. He coached the Police rugby team in 1964.

Alan Henricus,a former Lieutenant in the Navy was another Royal College and Navy Fly Half who lives in Sydney .

Alan Henricus too hails from a family of sportsmen. His eldest brother Barney Henricus, passed away recently in America. Barney was a Chief Inspector of Police and was the first to win a Gold Medal for Ceylon at the Empire Games. His other brother Basil Henricus, another Royalist athlete and rugby player, was a Major in the Army. Basil was a national sprinter and turned out for Havelocks and Ceylon at rugby-football. The other brothers Captain George and Derrick too were good sportsmen.

Sivendran had also met Dr Larry Foenander , the Army ruggerite and coach. “I was also happy to speak to Eustace Rulach, an old Trinitian who was a great rugby scribe during my playing days and his wife Jean. ”, Sivendran recalled that the Rulachs stayed down Peterson Lane, Wellawatte where he too stayed during his school days at St. Peter’s Bambalapitiya.

Siva had also been in touch with Dr Larry Foenander, the former Royal College, Havelocks SC and Army rugby player and coach

In Melbourne, Siva had visited the Dandenong Hills with his cousins and a friend. On their way back they had the opportunity to have lunch at a Ceylonese Restaurant and found that it was owned by Chou de Kauve, who had played rugby and boxed for the Air Force. “Chou recognised me promptly as a rugby player as he had watched me playing and later as a referee,”said Siva. “Chou was so hospitable that he had refused to give us the bill.” The lunch was his way of showing his appreciation at meeting some people from way back home.

Sivendran had been glad to meet former Deputy Inspector General of Police V. Vamadevan, who lives in Sydney with his wife Charmine. This couple had taken them on a sight seeing tour to the Blue Mountains and later they had visited the Blow Hole in Kiama. Siva had also spent four days with former Deputy Inspector General Douglas Ranmuthugala and his wife Janaki in Canberra where they had taken them to Parliament House and the War Memorial .Siva and his party had also met Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner Mr. Kusum Balapatabendi whilst in Canberra.

Even though Siva had been able to contact Leslie Ephraums, a former Police and Havelocks rugger player and his brother Conrad and Maurice de Silva, both Havelocks and Ceylon rugby players living in Brisbane, he had been unable to visit them due to a crowded schedule.
According to Sivendran all those who had migrated to Australia are living happily and their children too are prospering. But their thoughts are always with Sri Lanka, the land of their birth. Their dearest wish is to see peace return to the Paradise Isle.

Maureen Hingert

9 January 1937	is born in Colombo, Ceylon, of Dutch ancestry, the daughter of Lionel Hingert and Lorna Mabel de Run. Her father is president of the Bank of Ceylon and has extensive tea holdings.
c. 1942	enters the Holy Family Convent in Colombo and stays there until she is 18
?	studies languages, world history, and nursing. She speaks English, French, Spanish, Hindustani, and Tamil.
?	stars in a Ceylonese movie, Ram Gopal
c. 1954	is in Veit Harlan's Sterne ueber Colombo, a.k.a. Circus Girl, a German picture filmed in Ceylon
	wins the role of a solo dance in Elephant Walk
25 June 1955	is crowned “Miss Ceylon” in Colombo, Ceylon
22 July 1955	is heralded a favorite for the world beauty crown together with “Miss Sweden,” “Miss USA,” “Miss England,” and “Miss El Salvador”
	becomes second runner-up to Hillevi Rombin, “Miss Sweden,” in the "Miss Universe" contest held in Long Beach, California
July 1955	says: “I drink no alcoholic beverages and smoke no cigarettes.”
	the judges call her “one of the most beautiful Oriental entrants we have ever had”
October 1955	is heralded to make her screen debut playing an American Indian in Universal-International’s Pillars of the Sky
	is signed by 20th Century-Fox for their upcoming The King and I
26 October 1955	accompanies Ceylon's ambassador C. E. L. Wickremesinghe to a formal luncheon at the Wilton Hotel. There they dine with Mayor George Vermillion and Oscar Meinhardt, executive director of the "Miss Universe" beauty pageant.
21 January 1956	she and fellow beauty queen Hillevi Rombin attend a dinner date at the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium honoring Humberto Valenzuela, retired Chilean bank president and head of several large industries
April 1956	Jon Hall is reported paging her to play the jungle queen in his "Ramar of the Jungle" TV series
	lives at the well-chaperoned Hollywood Studio Club and will study at UCLA
?	performs classic Indian dances in Los Angeles
1956	tours Europe and the Middle East
1956 – 57	stars opposite Maxwell Reed as Anura, a beautiful South Seas native girl, in the British TV series “Captain David Grief.” The series is shot on location in Mexico.
October 1957	is pictured attending an installation banquet for Miss Universe Beauty Pageant officers at the Lafayette Hotel
Early April 1958	announces plans to marry Mario Armand Zamparelli, a Montrose artist, on June 4
April 1958	will start rehearsals in September for a New York stage production, Father India
1958	marries Zamparelli. He's 31; she's 21.
	films Fort Bowie on location at the Kanab Movie Fort at Kanab, Utah
	her daughter Regina N. is born in Los Angeles. She will become renown Los Angeles concert promoter Gina Zamparelli.
	her daughter Marisa N. is born in Los Angeles
	her third daughter is born in Los Angeles
2007	resides in the Los Angeles area

Sources: Syracuse Herald-American, Long Beach Independent Press-Telegram, The Lima News, The Lowell Sun, The Bennington Evening Banner, Oakland Tribune, Pasadena Independent, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Picture Show 1957, www.Ancestry.com

She was heralded a favorite for the world beauty crown together with “Miss Sweden,” “Miss USA,” “Miss England,” and “Miss El Salvador.” The Judges stated, “she is the most beautiful entrant we have ever had”.

Due to her win in the Miss Universe Pageant, she has long been revered as “putting Sri Lanka on the map” and being an ambassador to her country, Sri Lanka.

Hingert was born on January 9, 1937 in Colombo, Sri Lanka to Lionel Hingert and Lorna Mabel De Run. Her father, of Dutch people Dutch ancestry. He was the President of the Bank of Ceylon and he had extensive tea estates. The family lived in a large mansion in Ceylon

Hingert attended school at the Holy Family Convent in Colombo until she was eighteen. She studied world history, languages (English, French, Spanish, Hindustani, and Tamil), nursing and dancing.

In 1954, Hingert was crowned Miss Ceylon in her country and subsequently selected as a contestant in the 1955 Miss Universe pagent.

Following her victory in the contest, Hingert was put under contract to Universal International Studios and 20th Century Fox.

Some of the movies she appeared in include: The King and I, Fort Bowie, Gun Fever, The Adventures of Hiram Holiday, Moroccan Halk Moth, Pillars of the Sky,

Maureen Hingert is an actress.

As an actress, Maureen Hingert has performed in movies such as "Gunmen from Laredo", released in 1959, in which she portrayed Rosita, "Gun Fever"(1958), and "Fort Bowie"(1958).