Vincent Stuart de Silva Wikramanayake

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

, JPUM, (18 December 1876 – 1953) was a Ceylonese lawyer and politician. He served as a member of the

Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...

(1924–1931) and

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 ...

(1931–1935). Wikramanayake was 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 defeated 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. At the first State Council election in 1931, the election for Hambantota's seat was held on 13 June 1931 with only two candidates. Wikramanayake won with 15,384 votes defeating retired

Mudaliyar Thuluva Vellalar, also known as Agamudi Mudaliar or Arcot Mudaliars, is a caste found in northern Tamil Nadu, southern Andhra Pradesh and southern Karnataka. They were an elite and dominant land-owning community. Etymology The earliest occu ...

H. Jayawardene, who received 4,467 votes, by a 10,917 vote majority. At the second State Council election held in 1936 he was defeated by Don Mathew Rajapaksa, who was one of Wikramanayake's clerks. He was appointed a Commander of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in the

1950 Birthday Honours The King's Birthday Honours 1950 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The appointments were made to celebrate the ...

. Wikramanayake married Cecilia née de Saram, daughter of the acting

Gate Mudaliyar Mudaliyar (or Mudali) was a Ceylon, Ceylonese colonial title during Portuguese Ceylon, Portuguese and British Ceylon, British rule of the island. Stemming from the Native headmen of Ceylon, native headman system, the title was usually hereditary, ...

Galle Galle (, ; , ) (formerly ) is a major city on the southwestern tip of Sri Lanka, south of Colombo. Galle is the provincial capital and largest city of Southern Province, Sri Lanka and is the capital of Galle District. Galle was known as ''Gi ...

, Peter de Saram, with whom he had four children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wikramanayake, V. S. 1876 births 1953 deaths Members of the Legislative Council of Ceylon Members of the 1st State Council of Ceylon Sinhalese people Sri Lankan lawyers Ceylonese Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Ceylonese proctors Sri Lankan justices of the peace and unofficial magistrates