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Christopher Allan Hector Perera Jayawardena

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Brigadier Christopher Allan Hector Perera Jayawardena CMG CVO CStJ OBE ED (1898-1986) was a Ceylonese forest conservator, military officer and socialite. He was a Senior Assistant Conservator of Forests and Aide-de-camp to the Governor-General and Chief Commissioner of the Sri Lanka Scout Association

Public service

Educated at Trinity College, Kandy, he graduated from the University of Oxford, with a MA,[1] Jayawardena joined the Forest Department as an Assistant Conservator of Forests. He became the Senior Assistant Conservator of Forests before his retirement in 1949.[2] He was a Justice of the peace for the western province. He served as the District Commissioner of the Colombo District Scout Association[3] and was later the Chief Commissioner of the Sri Lanka Scout Association. He was also a senior freemason in Irish, English, and the Scottish masonic lodge in Sri Lanka.

Military service

Jayawardena was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Ceylon Light Infantry, as a volunteer officer in the Ceylon Defense Force in 1925. With the on set of World War II, the Ceylon Light Infantry was expanded for war time service and Major Jayawardena was appointed commanding officer of the 1st Battalion with Captain Anton Muttukumaru serving as his adjutant. He was soon promoted to rank of Lieutenant Colonel. With the formation of the Ceylon Army in 1949, he transferred to the Ceylon Volunteer Force Reserve with the rank of Colonel and was appointed extra Aide-de-camp to the Governor-General in 1950, holding the appointment till 1959. He served as the commanding officer of the Home Guard Regiment when it was formed in 1955. On his retirement from the army in 1959, he was promoted to the honorary rank of Brigadier, the first volunteer officer to be promoted to the rank. He remained an honorary extra aide-de-camp to the governor-general till the late 1960s.[4][5][6][7]

Honors

He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Military division) (MBE) in 1944, an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), an Commander of the Order of St John (CStJ), a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in 1954 and Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1956 New Year Honours.[8][9]

His medals include the Efficiency Decoration, Defence Medal (1946), the War Medal 1939–1945 (1946) for wartime service in World War II with the Ceylon Defense Force; and for service in the Ceylon Army, he received the Ceylon Armed Services Long Service Medal, the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal and the Ceylon Armed Services Inauguration Medal.

Family

He married to Sylvia Dorothy Samarasinghe. His sister Esther Jayawardena married Oliver Ernest Goonetilleke, who later became the third Governor-General of Ceylon. She died before her husband joined public service. Jayawardena had two children, Sita Helen Evelyn Parakrama (1925 - 1978) and Christopher Jayawardena. Both children predeceased him.

References

  1. ^ "People Database". prm.ox.ac.uk. Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  2. ^ "Fergusons Ceylon Directory 1949". Retrieved 16 June 2020. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ^ "History of Scouting in Colombo District". colomboscouts.lk. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  4. ^ Fergusons Ceylon Directory 1957 (PDF).
  5. ^ "Sri Lanka Army Service Corps". Sri Lanka Army Service Corps. 22 January 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  6. ^ "LIFE MEMBERS". The Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland. 10: 130–133. 1960. JSTOR 43483830.
  7. ^ 1969-70 Ferguson's Ceylon Directory
  8. ^ "The London Gazette" (PDF). The London Gazette. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  9. ^ "The London Gazette" (PDF). The London Gazette. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
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