Hon. Sir Edwin Wijeyeratne | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Minister of Home Affairs and Rural Development | |
| In office 22 July 1948 – 28 February 1951[1] | |
| Prime Minister | D. S. Senanayake |
| Preceded by | Oliver Ernest Goonetilleke |
| Succeeded by | Oliver Ernest Goonetilleke |
| Member ofState Council of Ceylon for Kegalle | |
| In office 20 June 1931 – 7 December 1935 | |
| Member of theSenate of Ceylon | |
| In office 1947–1951 | |
| High Commissioner for Ceylon to the United Kingdom | |
| In office 1951–1954 | |
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Prime Minister | |
| Preceded by | Oliver Goonetilleke |
| Succeeded by | Claude Corea |
| High Commissioner for Ceylon to India | |
| In office 1955–1957 | |
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Prime Minister | Sir John Kotelawala, S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike |
| Preceded by | C. Coomaraswamy |
| Succeeded by | Richard Aluwihare |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Edwin Aloysius Perera Wijeyeratne (1889-01-08)8 January 1889 |
| Died | 19 October 1968(1968-10-19) (aged 79) |
| Nationality | Ceylonese |
| Party | United National Party |
| Spouse | Leelanée Pethiyagoda |
| Children | |
| Occupation | lawyer, politician, diplomat |
| Profession | Advocate |
Sir Edwin Aloysius Perera WijeyeratneKBE (Sinhala: ශ්රිමත් එඩ්වින් ඇලෝසියස් පෙරේරා විජයරත්න) (8 January 1889 – 19 October 1968), known asEdwin Wijeyeratne, was a Sri Lankan lawyer, politician, diplomat,[2] and one of the founding members of theCeylon National Congress and theUnited National Party. He was aSenator andMinister of Home Affairs and Rural Development in the cabinet ofD. S. Senanayake. He thereafter he served asCeylonese High Commissioner to the United Kingdom andCeylonese High Commissioner to India[3][4]
Born on 8 January 1889 inRambukkana,Sri Lanka Wijeyeratne came from a family that traced its roots to theKotte Kingdom, which had fled during the Portuguese invasion. His father was Gabriel Perera Wijeyeratne, anotary public and his mother was Catherina Wickremasinghe Jayasekera (née Tennekoon), daughter of Jayasekera Tennekoon, a notary from the Four Korales in Kegalle. The eldest child in the family, he grew up in the BuddenipolaWalauwa inKegalle.[5][6][7]
Wijeyeratne received his primary education at the village school in Rambukkana. When nine years old, he transferred to Handessa Village School inGampola, where he stayed at the home of his future wife, Leela Pethiyagoda. He was subsequently educated atSt. Mary's College, Kegalle, before completing his secondary education atSt. Joseph's College, Colombo where he passed the Cambridge Senior Exam with Honors and won fifteen prizes at his final school prize-giving.[8]
After completing school, he taught at Lorenz Tutory whilst pursuing an early career in journalism, where he worked underArmand de Souza.
While working as a journalist, Wijeyeratne studied law at theCeylon Law College and qualified as anAdvocate in 1929 at the age of 30. He then established hislegal practice in theunofficial bar in his home town Kegalle, specializing inCivil law andKandyan law, and inBuddhist ecclesiastical law till 1949.[8] He was an expert in Civil and Kandyan Law, and inBuddhist Ecclesiastical Law.[8]
During his early days in journalism, Wijeyeratne became political secretary toSir Ponnambalam Ramanathan and was one of the co-founders of a political group, the Young Lanka League. He was arrested by theBritish colonial authorities during the1915 riots, accused of subversive writings and activities due to his agitation for self-rule.[9][10] Others who faced imprisonment without charges includedF. R. Senanayake, D. C. Senanayake,D. S. Senanayake,Baron Jayatilaka,Dr. C. A. Hewavitarne,W. A. de Silva,Arthur V. Dias, John Silva,Piyadasa Sirisena andA. E. Goonesinha who went on to play a prominent part in the independence movement.
Wijeyeratne was a founding member of theCeylon National Congress which was founded bySir Ponnambalam Arunachalam andSir James Peiris in 1919. He was elected to theState Council of Ceylon in 1931 from Kegalle, where he served until 7 December 1935. He did not stand for re-election at the State Council in 1936 and return to his legal practice. On 21 December 1940, Wijeyeratne was appointed President of the Ceylon National Congress. His Joint Secretaries wereDudley Senanayake andJR Jayawardene. During this period he was chosen to lead the Ceylon National Congress delegation to London. A famous story at the time was in 1944 when theSoulbury Commission was on their way toKandy, D. S. Senanayake had stationed Wijeyeratne bare-bodied, in a paddy field in Kegalle. There, he was introduced to the commissioners as a typical Sinhala farmer and who spoke in English to the commissioners and impressed on them the need for Ceylon to obtain self-government.[8][11] A special invitation was thereby sent to Ceylon byJawaharlal Nehru and the Indian Congress to visit India for a discussion regarding the independence of Ceylon. Wijeyeratne, D. S Senanayake, George E. De Silva,J. R. Jayawardene,Sir Claude Corea andH. W. Amarasuriya were among the delegates.
In 1947, Wijeyeratne became a founding member of theUnited National Party and was appointed to theSenate of Ceylon which was a non-elected upper house of parliament. There he served as acting Leader of the Senate. He subsequently succeededSir Oliver Goonetilleke as Minister of Home Affairs and Rural Development in D. S. Senanayake's cabinet in July 1948. He was a member of the Commission on the Death Penalty which first recommended the abolishing the death penalty from Ceylon in 1948. While Minister of Home Affairs and Rural Development, Wijeyeratne served as the Chairman of the select committee to select the National Anthem for Sri Lanka.Namo, Namo, Matha was subsequently selected as the country's national anthem.[12][13][14][15][16] He resigned as Minister and Senator in February 1951 paving the way for Sir Oliver Goonetilleke to succeed him and return to his former post on his return from London.
In 1952, Wijeyeratne was appointedCeylonese High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, succeedingSir Oliver Goonetilleke in turn and was knighted the year after in the1953 New Year Honours as aKnight Commander (Civil Division) of theOrder of the British Empire byQueen Elizabeth II atBuckingham Palace.[17] As the Ceylonese High Commissioner, Wijeyeratne was involved in strengthening diplomatic relations between Britain and Sri Lanka. Wijeyeratne and his wife were visited at their residence in London on three occasions byQueen Elizabeth II andPrince Philip. In 1954, Wijeyeratne was recalled home andSir Claude Corea succeeded him as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. In 1955, he was appointedCeylonese High Commissioner to India, where he served till 1957 and was succeeded bySir Richard Aluvihare.[18]
Wijeyeratne married Leela Pethiyagoda from the Meewaladeniya Walauwa in Gampola and had three sons and a daughter. The eldest,Tissa Wijeyeratne was a Barrister at Law and served as the Additional Secretary to theMinistry of External Affairs and Defence, as Sri Lankan Ambassador to France and toSwitzerland, and as Senior Advisor (Foreign Affairs) to Prime MinisterSirimavo Bandaranaike.[6] His second son,Dr Nissanka Wijeyeratne, was former Minister of Education, Higher Education and Justice,Diyawadana Nilame (Chief lay Custodian) ofTemple of the Tooth, and later theSri Lankan Ambassador to theRussian Federation and former member of the governing body ofUNESCO. The youngest son, Dr Cuda Wijeyeratne is aconsultant psychiatrist.
Sir Edwin Wijeyeratne died on 19 October 1968 in Kegalle.[19]