Wimalasiri De Mel (1926 - 2010) was a Sri Lankan Trotskyist revolutionary politician. He was a member of parliament from Moratuwa.
De Mel was engaged in social service from a young age. He became the secretary of a Society formed by Senator Sam P. C. Fernando. He contested and was elected to the Moratuwa Urbarn Council from the United Socialist Front and played an active role in the 1953 Ceylonese Hartal. A long standing member of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, he served as its general secretary. He contested the 1970 general election from the LSSP and was elected from the Moratuwa electorate. He unsuccessfully contested the 1977 general election from Moratuwa. He died on 31 October 2010 and his body was donated to the National Ayurveda Hospital per his wishes. [1]
De Soysa International Cricket Stadium is a multi-use stadium in Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. It is currently used mostly for cricket matches. The stadium holds 15,000 people and hosted its first Test match in 1992. The ground opened in 1940 and gained Test status in 1979. Moratuwa, located just eight miles (13 km) south of Colombo is renowned for its carpentry, cricket and its philanthropists. Indeed it was the most famous of these families that initiated the development of De Soysa Park Stadium, when they donated the 5 acre plot of land to the Urban Council in 1940, to develop the Sports Complex. An additional 2 acres were sold under its market value by another member of the family. The ground was named De Soysa Park and subsequently used mainly for Moratuwa Sports Club (MSC) and school competitions.
Patrick de Silva Kularatne was a Sri Lankan educationist and politician. He was a Member of the State Council of Ceylon (1942-1947) and Member of Parliament (1960-1965). He served as Principal of Ananda College and Dharmaraja College and established Nalanda College Colombo, Ananda Balika Vidyalaya, Moratuwa Vidyalaya and Dharmapala Vidyalaya. As a member of the executive committee on Education, he played an instrumental role in the realisation of free education from kindergarten to university.
Charles Henry de Soysa Dharmagunawardana Vipula Jayasuriya Karunaratna Disanayaka popularly known as Charles Henry de Soysa, JP was a Ceylonese entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was a pioneering planter, industrialist and was the wealthiest Ceylonese of the 19th century. He was instrumental in the establishment of the first Ceylonese bank, the Moratuwa carpenters guild, the Ceylon Agricultural and National Associations. He is widely regarded as the greatest philanthropist of the island for contributions which includes the De Soysa Maternity Hospital, the Prince and Princess of Wales Colleges, the Model Farm Experimental Station and many other institutions and acts of charity, establishing infant-maternal healthcare and secular education for girls in the country. He would have been the island's first Knight Bachelor, but having died prior, his widow was given the rare honor of the use of the style and dignity of wife of the Knight Bachelor and was known as Catherine, Lady de Soysa.
Rajavarothiam Sampanthan is a Sri Lankan Tamil politician and lawyer who has led the Tamil National Alliance since 2001. He has also been a Member of Parliament since 2001, and previously served as a Member of Parliament from 1977 to 1983 and from 1997 to 2000. He was the Leader of the Opposition from September 2015 to December 2018.
Rathnayaka Mudiyanselage Dharmadasa Banda, known commonly as R. M. Dharmadasa Banda, was a Sri Lankan teacher, lawyer and politician, a member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka and a former cabinet minister. He was a Basnayaka Nilame of the Ruhunu Maha Kataragama Devalaya.
Weerasangilige Wimal Weerawansa is a Sri Lankan politician, Member of Parliament and current leader of the National Freedom Front (NFF). Weerawansa has served many cabinet positions, including Minister of Industries from 2020 to 2022, Minister of Small and Medium Business and Enterprise Development, Industries and Supply Chain Management from 2019 to 2020, Minister of Housing and Social Welfare in 2018 and the Minister of Construction and Housing from 2010 to 2015.
Ronald Joseph Godfrey de Mel is a Sri Lankan civil servant and a politician. civil servant. He was the Cabinet Minister of Finance from 1977 to 1988 United National Party government and was instrumental in the establishment of the free market economy in Sri Lanka. He was a Member of Parliament from the Matara District in the Parliament of Sri Lanka until 2004. He had served as a Senior Adviser to President.
Matara electoral district is one of the 22 multi-member electoral districts of Sri Lanka created by the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka. The district is conterminous with the administrative district of Matara in the Southern province. The district currently elects 8 of the 225 members of the Sri Lankan Parliament and had 578,858 registered electors in 2010.
Moratuwa electoral district was an electoral district of Sri Lanka between August 1947 and February 1989. The district was named after the city of Moratuwa in Colombo District, Western Province. The 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka introduced the proportional representation electoral system for electing members of Parliament. The existing 160 mainly single-member electoral districts were replaced with 22 multi-member electoral districts. Moratuwa electoral district was replaced by the Colombo multi-member electoral district at the 1989 general elections, the first under the PR system, though Moratuwa continues to be a polling division of the multi-member electoral district.
Rajapakse Mohottige Don Suranimala Rajapaksha was a Sri Lankan politician. Rajapaksha was first elected to the Parliament of Sri Lanka in 1994 and he was the Minister of School Education in Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka in 2001 to 2004. He was a member of the United National Party (UNP) and a member of UNP Working Committee. He was also appointed as the Coordinating secretary to the prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in 2015. At the time of his death he acted as the special envoy (representative) to the Prime Minister. His younger son Kanishka Rajapaksha was also appointed as the Coordinating Assistant to the Prime Minister after the death of Rajapaksha. Kanishka is an Attorney at Law in his profession.
Thomas Amarasuriya, OBE was a Ceylonese planter and politician. He was a member of the State Council of Ceylon and President of the Senate of Ceylon. He was the first Ceylonese Chairman of the Planters Association and a brother of H. W. Amarasuriya.
Wilmot Arthur de Silva was Ceylonese veterinary surgeon, politician and philanthropist. He was the Minister of Health (1936–1942) in the second State Council of Ceylon and a former President of the Ceylon National Congress.
Reginald Abraham de Mel was a Ceylonese politician. Having served as the Mayor of Colombo, he served as the Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Committees in the first parliament of Ceylon, until he was unseated by an election petition.
Weerahennedige Theodore Wilfred Meryl Fernando was a Ceylonese teacher, trade unionist, politician and Member of Parliament.
Somaweera Chandrasiri was a Sinhalese poet and Ceylonese politician.
Hugh Edmund Peter de Mel was a Ceylonese politician.
Themiya Loku Bandara Hurulle is a Sri Lankan politician and Honorary Secretary, Anuradhapura Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi Development Fund a former project minister and a United National Party organiser for Horawupotana Electorate. He was also a provincial councillor and a member of Parliament from Anuradhapura District. He is an engineer by profession.
Kusala Vichitra Abhayavardhana was a Sri Lankan social worker. She was the co-founder of the Civil Service International in Sri Lanka, founding secretary International Women’s Year Sri Lanka and national chair of the Women in Peace in Sri Lanka. She was a Member of Parliament from 1970 to 1977.
Warnakulasuriya Philip Antony Protus Tissera was a Ceylonese politician.
Perumabadu Piyasena Wickramasuriya was a Sri Lankan politician. He was the member of Parliament of Sri Lanka from Devinuwara representing the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.