General
Sir
John Lionel Kotelawala
CH
KBE
KStJ
PC
(
Sinhala
:
???????? ???? ????? ???????
; 4 April 1897 ? 2 October 1980) was a Sri Lankan
soldier
and
politician
. He was the third Prime Minister of
Ceylon
from 1953 to 1956.
Sir John Kotelawala was from a rich family. His father,
John Kotelawala Snr
, was an inspector in the Ceylon Police Force. His mother was
Alice Attygalle
. John Kotelawala Snr committed
suicide
when his son was 11.
[1]
The family were in ruins, Alice Attygalle converted to Christianity from Buddhism. He attended the same
Royal College, Colombo
, but dropped out after independence riots in 1915.
Thereafter he took a trip to
Europe
after leaving school, which was very dangerous because
World War I
was being fought there. He stayed in Europe for five years, spending most of that time in England and France and attending
Christ's College, Cambridge
, University of Cambridge to study
farming
.
Kotelawala was known as a strict man who loved sports, horseback riding,
cricket
and particularly as a young man, got into fights when he was made fun of. He knew
Sinhala
,
English
and
French
. After returning to
Ceylon
, he took up managing his family's "farm" and mines.
[2]
He went on to serve 23 years mostly as a
reservist
(meaning a back up) since the
Ceylon Defense Force
was a army reservist of the
British Army
.
[3]
In 1939 he became the commanding officer of the Ceylon Light Infantry and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1940.
[4]
With the start of
World War II
, he became a member of the Ceylon's War Cabinet and was made a
Colonel
in 1942, the highest rank that a Ceylonese could achieve.
[5]
Making himself a respectful man.
A strong supporter of the military, he was the first Chairman of the Ceylon Light Infantry Association in 1974. He was promoted to the rank of general on his deathbed.
He gave his home to the government to establish a national defense academy.
As early as 1915, Kotelawala had become interested in political leaders such as
Don Senanayake
and his brother
F.R. Senanayake
, who was married to Kotelawala's mother's sister.
He entered politics by being elected to the Legislative Council as the member of Kurunegala.
[5]
Thereafter he entered the State Council as a backbencher and was re-elected in 1936. In his second term he was appointed Minister of Communications.
- ↑
"How Kotelawala (Snr) got young brother-in-law killed | The Sunday times Sri Lanka"
. Retrieved
6 August
2020
.
- ↑
"Men & Memories Sir John ? the most colourful personality of our time"
. Retrieved
6 August
2020
.
- ↑
"118th Birth Anniversary of Late General Sir John Kotelawala commemorated"
. Archived from
the original
on 18 June 2019
. Retrieved
6 August
2020
.
- ↑
Jackson, Ashley (April 2009). "
'Defend Lanka Your Home': War on the Home Front in Ceylon, 1939?1945".
War in History
.
16
(2): 213?238.
doi
:
10.1177/0968344508100990
.
JSTOR
26070723
.
S2CID
159795163
.
- ↑
5.0
5.1
"Men & Memories Sir John ? the most colourful personality of our time"
. Retrieved
6 August
2020
.