Funeral arrangements confirmed for Sir Arthur

THE funeral of Sir Arthur C Clarke will be held at the General Cemetery in Colombo tomorrow (Saturday), March 22, at 3.30 pm.
In keeping with Sir Arthur’s wishes, the entire funeral will be a low key, secular event with no religious rites, decorations or speeches.
However, both the funeral house and the funeral are open to the public.
“Sir Arthur did not wish to have any involvement by either British or Sri Lankan governments,” said his spokesman Nalaka Gunawardene.
“To that extent, there is nothing official about the funeral. But his friends, fans and admirers are free to pay their respects.
“We recognise that he was a public figure.
“Sir Arthur’s family deeply appreciates the very large number of condolence messages coming in from all over the world.
“These indicate the enormous respect and affection Sir Arthur inspired in so many people.”
The author’s remains now lie at his home at 25, Barnes Place, Colombo 7, Sri Lanka.
Since March 19, when Sir Arthur died aged 90, the family has politely declined many offers of banners and other forms of display of sympathy, as Sir Arthur asked not put up structures or decorations of any kind.
One exception is flowers, which are accepted.
In a signed letter left with his family and staff in mid-2007, Sir Arthur gave precise instructions for his funeral.
His final resting place is to be the family burial plot owned by his adopted Ekanayake family at the Colombo Cemetery.
Sir Arthur, who was born in Minehead, shared his Colombo house with Hector and Valerie Ekanayake, and their three daughters Cherene, Tamara and Melinda.
They will all be at the funeral.
Sir Arthur’s brother Fred Clarke has already arrived in Colombo, and sister Mary is due Friday night.
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke died at Colombo’s Apollo Hospital on March 19 early morning (Sri Lanka time) from respiratory complications.
He was also suffering from post-polio syndrome since the early 1990s, which confined him to a wheelchair for the past decade.
Photo of Sir Arthur by Shahidul Alam.

EXCLUSIVE: Town forgets to celebrate Sir Arthur's 90th birthday

SIR Arthur C. Clarke (pictured), the most famous person to have been raised in Minehead, is due to celebrate his 90th birthday on Sunday, December 16.
But in his home town, the anniversary will pass almost unnoticed as there are no plans for any public occasion.
However, after The Post alerted the Mayor of Minehead, Councillor David Hawkes, the town council could send a civic greetings card to Sir Arthur and possibly link up with him via a webcam chat.
Councillor Hawkes said he would liaise with Air Arthur’s brother, Fred Clarke, who lives in Bishops Lydeard, to see what could be arranged.
He told The Post: “I know of Sir Arthur and the plaque on his house, but I did not know it was his birthday.
“Nobody has suggested doing anything, so I suppose it shows there is not a lot of interest at the moment.
“But I am always open to ideas and it would be nice if we could do something, and it would be good for the town as a whole.”
West Somerset Council spokeswoman Stacey Beaumont told The Post when asked if the district council planned to do anything to mark Sir Arthur’s birthday: “We have no plans.”
Fred Clarke told The Post that the only celebrations of which he was aware were being organised by Sir Arthur’s staff in Columbo, Sri Lanka, where he lives.
Mr Clarke said: “I spoke to him a few days ago. He is keeping pretty well.
“He is now in a wheelchair completely but seems to be quite happy and cheerful.
“I spoke to his staff and they are laying on celebrations over there.
“It would have been nice for something to be done in Minehead as well. He has great affection for Minehead.”
Sir Arthur, probably best known for his groundbreaking novel 2001 A Space Odyssey, later made into a Hollywood film by director Stanley Kubrick, was born in Blenheim Road, Minehead, and went to school at what is now the Richard Huish College, in Taunton.
He has lived in Sri Lanka since 1956 and has only occasionally returned to Minehead, once, in 1992, to have the Freedom of the Town bestowed on him ‘in recognition of his distinguished services to science and the arts’.
Sir Arthur was knighted in 1998, but the honour was not bestowed on him until 2000 due to a row over a national newspaper allegation against him which was later shown to be unfounded.
He is credited with inventing the idea of satellite telecommunications, writing a private paper on it in 1945, and two decades later he saw his vision turned into reality with the advent of satellites in geostationary orbits.
The International Astronomical Union has named the geostationary orbit at 36,000 kilometres above the equator The Clarke Orbit in tribute to Sir Arthur.
The learning resource centre in Richard Huish College has been named in honour of Sir Arthur, who also has an asteroid and a species of dinosaur discovered in Australia named after him.
NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter, which is looking for evidence of past or present water and volcanic activity to help answer the question of whether life has ever existed on Mars, is also named in honour of Sir Arthur’s work.
Fred Clarke is currently setting up a group to encourage budding young inventors.
It will be called the Pip Youngman Group after the late Taunton inventor, who worked with young people aged from 13 to 24 years.
Mr Clarke said: “It is for youngsters who have ideas which we will encourage them to develop.
“We will check out an idea to see if anybody has done it before, and do drawings and models to try to see if we can get somebody to take it up.”
Mr Clarke said he was inspired by what had happened to Sir Arthur, whose communications satellite invention was not taken up by anybody in England and so was eventually given to an American.
“Now, we spend millions every year on satellite communications which we pay to the Americans,” he said.
“I do not want to see that happen to any more of our young inventors.”