Rex de Silva

Rex de Silva was chief pilot of Air Ceylon and a Sri Lankan pilot who served as a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force in World War II.

Early life
Mervyn Rex de Silva was born in 1918. His father John Walter de Silva was a head guard in the Ceylon Railway and his mother Freda (née Ebert). He was educated at St Peters College Colombo and later worked as a stenographer. He had flying lessons after winning a scholarship awarded by Lord Leverhulme. He and St Elmo Muller became the first Ceylonese Aero Club members to fly from Ratmalana to Madras and return.

Career as a pilot
He volunteered to the RAF and trained at the Elementary Flying School at Fairoaks. He flew Spitfire VB aircraft with 504 squadron from 1943 to 1944 from Ibsley, Church Stanton and Redhill as an interceptor as well as flying bomber escort missions, escorting Marauder bombers. In 1944 he was posted to 17 squadron and flew Spitfires (MT719) from Minneriya Ceylon, Calcutta and Chittagong, Assam and Burma. After serving in Bangalore and as Flight Controller in Katunayake Ceylon he was demobilised.

He was appointed a probationary pilot Officer in the RAF volunteer reserve and gazetted on 9 October 1945.

Later career
On demobilisation he was recruited to Air India and flew DC3 Dakota aircraft out of Bombay. He also flew JRD Tata in a private Beechcraft c-45. In 1947 he joined Air Ceylon and became its Chief Pilot. He married Dorothy Armer in 1947. He immigrated to Australia in 1955 working as a Senior Administration Officer in Waverly Australia and retired in 1982. He died in 2005.