Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only a ...

Jayatilaka Cudah Ratwatte

Adigar The Mahâ Adigâr ( si, මහා අධිකාරම්) (also known as Adikārama, Adikār) was a Great Officer in the Amātya Mandalaya, or Sinhalese Council of State, in the Sinhalese Kingdoms of monarchical Sri Lanka. The office was sec ...

(15 March 1880 – 27 March 1940) was a

Ceylonese Sri Lankan or Ceylonese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Sri Lanka * A person from Sri Lanka, see Demographics of Sri Lanka ** Sinhalese people, the ethnic majority ** Sri Lankan Tamils, an ethnic minority ** Sri ...

colonial-era politician and headman. He was a member of the

State Council of Ceylon The State Council of Ceylon was the unicameral legislature for Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), established in 1931 by the Donoughmore Constitution. The State Council gave universal adult franchise to the people of the colony for the first time. It re ...

(1931–1933), the first elected

Mayor of Kandy The mayor of Kandy is the mayor and head of the Kandy Municipal Council. The post was created in 1866 when the Kandy Municipal Council established by the ''Municipalities Ordinance of 1865''. The offices of the mayor are at the Kandy Town Hall. T ...

(1939–40), the first person from Kandy to be awarded a

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

from the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English ...

and was appointed to the post of

. Born to Abeyratne Banda Ratwatte Basnayake and Thalgahagoda Lewke Punchi née Kumarihamy, he was educated at

Trinity College, Kandy Trinity College, Kandy, is an independent private school for boys in Kandy Sri Lanka. It was founded in 1872 by British Anglican missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, modelled on Public School (United Kingdom), British Public school tradi ...

. His brothers were Barnes Ratwatte Dissawa and

Harris Leuke Ratwatte Wijewardena Seneviratne Panditha Abeykoon Bandaranayake Wahala Mudiyanselage Harris Leuke Ratwatte (known as ''Harris Leuke Ratwatte'') (1900–1964) was a Ceylonese legislator. He was a member of the State Council of Ceylon, Parliament and the S ...

both members of the

. He was the uncle of

Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike ( si, සිරිමා රත්වත්තේ ඩයස් බණ්ඩාරනායක; ta, சிறிமா ரத்வத்தே டயஸ் பண்டாரநாயக்கே; 17 April 191 ...

. In 1908 he married Chitravo Katugaha née Kumarihamy, with whom he had ten children including his eldest son, A. C. L. Ratwatte MBE (1909–1971), who also served as the Mayor Kandy (1948), Ceylon's High Commissioner in

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in Ghana–Ivory Coast border, the west, Burkina ...

(1965) and Ceylon's Ambassador to Malaysia, Stanley Ratwatte and J. C. Ratwatte II. Cudah Ratwatte served as the

Shroff Shroff is a surname. The word is derived from the Hindustani word ''saraf'' (bullion merchant , Baniya), which in turn, is ultimately derived from the Arabic ''ṣarrāf''. The word is also used to mean a cashier, especially in a car park or iden ...

of the Mercantile Bank of Kandy. On 4 May 1931, Ratwatte was elected unopposed to the

1st State Council of Ceylon The 1st State Council of Ceylon was a meeting of the State Council of Ceylon, with the membership determined by the results of the 1931 state council election held between 13 and 20 June 1931. The parliament met for the first time on 7 July 1931 ...

, representing Balangoda. He resigned from the State Council on 1 August 1933 due to ill-health. In 1939 he was granted a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are t ...

in the

New Year Honours The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark th ...

list for public services in Ceylon. At the first meeting of the

Kandy Municipal Council The Kandy Municipal Council ( Sinhala: මහනුවර මහ නගර සභා ''Mahanuwara Maha Nagara Sabha'') is the local council for Kandy, the second largest city and ''hill capital'' of Sri Lanka. The council was formed under the Mu ...

on 17 June 1939 Ratwatte was elected the

, a position he retained for a year. Ratwatte died on 27 March 1940 after a short illness.

External links

The Ratwatte Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ratwatte, Cuda 1880s births 1940 deaths Sri Lankan Buddhists Adigar Sinhalese politicians Knights Bachelor Alumni of Trinity College, Kandy Mayors of Kandy Members of the 1st State Council of Ceylon Cudah

See also

External links

References