My brother-in-law, Ambalavanar Ragunathan, who has died aged 79, was a fine marine engineer and the humblest of men. In his long career, Ragu acted as adviser to port authorities, governments, banks and shipyards in 36 countries, but he particularly relished transferring his skills to developing countries – including Malaysia, India, Hong Kong, Thailand, Ghana, Cameroon, Abu Dhabi and Nigeria.
He was born in Colombo, in what was then Ceylon, and educated as the country gained independence in 1948. He was a product of that time – a non-nationalist patriot and a practical socialist, with a love of western classical music, art and literature. During the 1950s he studied mechanical and marine engineering and went on to qualify in management accounting, all of which equipped him to found Colombo Dockyard Ltd in 1974. This involved setting up a huge dry dock, a shipbuilding plant and, later, a ship repair business in the capital of what had by now become Sri Lanka .
As the country moved from the import substitution policies of the Bandaranaike years into the unfettered capitalist era of the United National party, Ragu had to deal with difficulties of class, religion, political affiliation, community, caste and nepotism. He managed to walk that tightrope, becoming a dockyard boss renowned for fairness, commitment to employees and support of the union.
In a country increasingly divided, he spoke perfect Sinhala (he was a Tamil) and dared to offer employment to ex-insurgents from the far-left JVP uprising of 1971. And even as he was forced, by anti-Tamil riots and police interrogation, into exile in 1984, accompanied by his wife Sushila and daughters Sambavi and Kannagi, he secured jobs in dockyards across the world for as many of his co-workers as he could.
For him, a natural egalitarian, politics was not about kowtowing to the party line or courting favour with politicians, but serving his country, doing right by his men and teaching them to do right by theirs. When his death was announced, the flags around Colombo's dockyard were lowered to half-mast.
Ragu could not take to retirement. Despite ill-health, he travelled across London each week to work as a volunteer at a Tamil refugee centre and at the Institute of Race Relations.
He is survived by his wife and children, two sisters and a brother.
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