Bernard Jayasuriya was a Ceylonese businessman and politician. Bernard Jayasuriya was the son of D. C. D. Jayasuriya, a rubber plantation and graphite mine owner. He received his education at S. Thomas College and

St. Joseph's College, Colombo St. Joseph's College is a selective-entry Roman Catholic school in Sri Lanka. It was founded in 1896 by French Missionaries led by Rev. Father Christophe Ernest Bonjean. The college has over 4,000 enrolled students with a staff of over 450 as o ...

, where he captained the school's cricket team. He later played for the

Singhalese Sports Club The Singhalese Sports Club (SSC) was a first-class cricket club in Colombo, Sri Lanka till 2025 when they were relegated after enduring a horrendous 2024-25 version of the Major Club 3 day tournament in which they could only muster a single vi ...

. He served as a member of the 2nd State Council of Ceylon, between February 1943 and 1947, for

Avissawella Avissawella (, ) is a township in Sri Lanka, governed by an Urban Council, situated on the A4 route from Colombo to Ratnapura, Colombo District, Western Province, Sri Lanka, approximately 40 km air distance and 48.1 km road distance fr ...

, following the arrest and detention of the sitting member,

Philip Gunawardena Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena (11 January 1901 – 26 March 1972) was a Sri Lankan Marxist politician and leftist. A founder of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, the first political party in Ceylon which was known for having introduced Trotskyi ...

in July 1942 for his participation in the independence struggle in India. As a result, Gunawardena's seat in the State Council was made vacant and was won in the following by-election on 27 February 1943 by Jayasuriya, who secured 10,567 votes, 3,913 votes ahead of his nearest rival, S. T. D. Gunawardane. He was subsequently appointed to the Executive Committee for Labour, Industry and Commerce. In 1945 he married Clodagh née Jayewardene, who later became the first female to be elected to the

Senate of Ceylon The Senate was the upper chamber of the Parliament of Ceylon, parliament of Dominion of Ceylon, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) established in 1947 by the Soulbury Commission. The Senate was appointed and indirectly elected rather than directly elected. It ...

. Jayasuriya contested the seat of

at the 1st parliamentary election held in late 1947. He was unsuccessful in his attempt to get elected losing to

by almost 12,000 votes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jayasuriya, Bernard Alumni of Saint Joseph's College, Colombo Alumni of S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia Members of the 2nd State Council of Ceylon Sinhalese people Sri Lankan businesspeople Year of birth missing Year of death missing