In the days following independence from the British, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) was truly an island of serendipity, deserving the name of Serendib that had been bestowed upon it by early travellers. When the Ceylon army was raised in 1949, under the command of a British peer, Brigadier the Earl of Caithness, it had a mere 3000 men.
The Royal Ceylon Navy, as it was then called, was raised a couple of years later and was indeed tiny, with just a couple of hundred men. Its pride and joy was its single ship HMCyS Vijaya, previously the HMS Flying Fish, an ocean-going minesweeper bought from the British. Old navy salts still chuckle about the Vijaya´s first voyage to England under the RCyN flag. Its docking at Plymouth was greeted by a local newspaper with the memorable headline "The Fleet Is In!"
The Royal Ceylon Air Force was no bigger. It was raised in 1950 with the ambitious idea of providing one air wing of three fighter squadrons to the South East Asia Command (SEAC). This was subsequently scaled down and the RCyAF, formed with less than a hundred men, returned six crated Vampires back to de Havilland, the manufacturers, still in their original packing. The authorities had decided that an air wing was beyond the country´s means and its tiny air force had to make do with Chipmunk trainer aircraft and a Balliol, until a small squadron of Jet Provosts was added later. The budget of the Ministry of Defence and External Affairs for 1948-49, was no more than SLR 20 million, which paid not only for the three armed services and the police, but also for the country´s small foreign office.
The armed forces, predictably fashioned on the British model, were originally intended to complement the regular police in internal security functions, and also to perform a ceremonial role. A military parade on National Day was part of the scene and crowds used to flock Colombo´s seafront Galle Face green to cheer the marching soldiers, sailors and airmen. The bands played, and cannons boomed a national salute and sometimes there was an air display. It was all spit and polish, not the blood and gore of later years.