V. S. de S. Wikramanayake

Vincent Stuart de Silva Wikramanayake CBE, JPUM, (1876-1953) was Ceylonese lawyer and politician.^[1]^[2]^[3] He served as a member of the Legislative Council (1924-1931) and State Council of Ceylon (1931-1935).

Vincent Stuart de Silva Wikramanayake, was born on 18 December 1876, the youngest son of Charles Edward Wikramanayake (1843-1936) and Emilia Beth Sooriarachchi née Amarasekara.

At the fourth Legislative Council election held on 27 September 1924 he was elected as an unofficial member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon, representing the Southern Province Eastern Division. He defeating G. K. W. Perera, a barrister from Colombo. Perera won the initial vote but demanded a recount as he believed he had secured a greater majority of votes only to lose to Wikramanayake by 17 votes.^[4]

At the first State Council election in 1931, the election for the seat of Hambantota was held on the 13 June 1931 with only two candidates. Wikramanayake won with 15,384 votes defeating retired Mudaliyar, H. Jayawardene who received 4,467 votes, by a 10,917 vote majority.^[4]

At the second State Council election held in 1936 he was defeated by Don Mathew Rajapaksa, who was one of Wikramanayake's clerks.^[4] He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1950 Birthday Honours.

Wikramanayake married Cecilia née de Saram, daughter of the acting Gate Mudaliyar of Galle, Peter de Saram, with whom he had four children.^[5]

References

^ "Hon. Wickramanayake, Vincent Stuart de Silva, M.P." Directory of Past Members. Parliament of Sri Lanka. Archived from the original on 15 February 2023. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
^ The Ceylon Blue Book. Government Printer, South Africa. 1935. p. 133.
^ Wijesinghe, Sam (26 September 1999). "DP: A man who was one with the people". Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 8 May 2019. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
^ ^a ^b ^c Wijesinghe, Sam (25 December 2005). "People and State Power". The Sunday Observer. Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
^ Roberts, Nora (1993). Galle as Quiet as Asleep. p. 339. ISBN 9789559557906.