Colonel Thomas Yates Wright (1869–1964) was a British planter, who was a cricketer and legislator in Ceylon. He was a tea planter and served in the Legislative Council of Ceylon and the Senate of Ceylon. [1]
Colonel is a senior military officer rank below the brigadier and general officer ranks. However, in some small military forces, such as those of Monaco or the Vatican, colonel is the highest rank. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
The Legislative Council of Ceylon was the legislative body of Ceylon established in 1833, along with the Executive Council of Ceylon, on the recommendations of the Colebrooke-Cameron Commission. It was the first form of representative government in the island. The 1931 Donoughmore Constitution replaced the Legislative Council with the State Council of Ceylon.
The Senate was the upper chamber of the parliament of Ceylon established in 1947 by the Soulbury Commission. The Senate was appointed and indirectly elected rather than directly elected. It was housed in the old Legislative Council building in Colombo Fort and met for the first time on 12 November 1947. The Senate was abolished on 2 October 1971 by the eighth amendment to the Soulbury Constitution, prior to the adoption of the new Republican Constitution of Sri Lanka on 22 May 1972. In 2010 there were proposals to reintroduce the Senate.
Born in Lancashire, Wright went to Ceylon in 1889 as a planter. He was an all-round sportsman, playing cricket, Rugby football, hockey and polo. He represented Matale and Kandy Sports Club at cricket and played for the Up-Country XI from 1893 to 1919. He represented All Ceylon in several matches in the 1890s. [2] He was the founding President of Ceylon Athletic Association [3]
Lancashire is a ceremonial county in North West England. The administrative centre is Preston. The county has a population of 1,449,300 and an area of 1,189 square miles (3,080 km2). People from Lancashire are known as Lancastrians.
The Sri Lanka national cricket team, nicknamed The Lions, represents Sri Lanka in international cricket. It is a full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test, One-Day International (ODI) and T20 International (T20I) status. The team first played international cricket in 1926–27, and were later awarded Test status in 1982, which made Sri Lanka the eighth Test cricket playing nation. The team is administered by Sri Lanka Cricket.
From 1920 to 1925 he was a member of the Legislative Council and was appointed to the Senate of Ceylon in 1947. He owned the Mahakande Estate in which he built a bungalow in 1939 which is now known as Gal Bangalawa. He wrote the book Ceylon in My Time, 1889–1949 in 1951. [4]
A bungalow is a type of building, originally developed in the Bengal region of the subcontinent. The meaning of the word bungalow varies internationally. Common features of many bungalows include verandas and being low-rise. In Australia, the California bungalow associated with the United States was popular after the First World War. In North America and the United Kingdom, a bungalow today is a house, normally detached, that may contain a small loft. It is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof, usually with dormer windows.
Gal Bangalawa is a guest house owned and operated by the University of Peradeniya, situated at Mahakande, Peradeniya suburb of Kandy.
