James Herwald Ramsbotham, 2nd Viscount Soulbury (21 March 1915 – 12 December 2004) was the elder son of the Rt Hon

Herwald Ramsbotham, 1st Viscount Soulbury Herwald Ramsbotham, 1st Viscount Soulbury (6 March 1887 – 30 January 1971) was a British Conservative politician. He served as a government minister between 1931 and 1941 and served as Governor-General of Ceylon between the years 1949 and 195 ...

, British Conservative politician.

Army and marriage

At the outbreak of World War II he signed up with the

REME The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME ) is the maintenance arm of the British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full ...

, rapidly mastering the professional techniques, meanwhile continuing his work with groups in England. He married Anthea Margaret Wilton on 5 April 1949 (she died 26 June 1950).

Life in Sri Lanka

From the late 1950s he lived in Ceylon (

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

), where his father had been Governor-General, as a Hindu yogi under the name Santhaswami. Although he ran the Sivathondan Nilayam at

Chenkalady Chenkalady or Chenkaladi is a town in the Batticaloa District of Sri Lanka, it is located about 15 km north-west of Batticaloa. In Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to Indi ...

Batticaloa Batticaloa (, ''Maṭṭakkaḷappu'', ; , ''Maḍakalapuwa'', ) is a major city in the Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, and its former capital. It is the administrative capital of the Batticaloa District. The city is the seat of the Eastern Univers ...

, he also spent much time amongst the

Veddas The Vedda ( ; (''Vēḍar'')), or Wanniyalaeto, are a minority indigenous group of people in Sri Lanka who, among other sub-communities such as Coast Veddas, Anuradhapura Veddas and Bintenne Veddas, are accorded indigenous status. The Vedda ...

, aboriginal tribal peoples. He used to go off for long periods to their strongholds deep in the jungles and forests. Inevitably one newspaper or another would "scoop" the story of his death. He would subsequently emerge again from one of these forays, wondering what all the fuss was about. He then moved to Kaithadi Ashram at Jaffna, where he lived until 1986.

Publications

Yoga Swami: The Sage of Lanka

Arms

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Soulbury, Ramsbotham, James Ramsbotham, 2nd Viscount 1915 births 2004 deaths 2 British Army personnel of World War II People from British Ceylon English Hindus

Soulbury Soulbury is a village and also a civil parishes in England, civil parish within the Buckinghamshire Council, unitary authority area of Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Aylesbury Vale, about seven miles south of Central Milton Keyn ...