The Commander of the Army ( si, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ යුද්ධ හමුදාපති, śrī laṁkāvē yuddha hamudāpati) is the title of the professional head of the

Sri Lanka Army ta, இலங்கை இராணுவம் , image = File:Sri Lanka Army Logo.png , image_size = 180px , caption = Emblem of the Sri Lanka Army , start_date ...

. The current Commander of the Army is Lt. General

Vikum Liyanage Lieutenant General H.L.V.M. Liyanage, popularly known as Vikum Liyanage, is a senior Sri Lanka Army officer. He is the current Commander of the Sri Lanka Army. Prior to become army commander, he was the 59th Chief of Staff of the Army. On 1 July ...

. The post traces its roots to the post of

General Officer Commanding, Ceylon General Officer Commanding, Ceylon (also known as ''Commander of Troops'' or ''Officer Commanding His/Her Majesties Troops, Ceylon'') was the designation of the General Officer appointed to command all British Army units stationed in the island o ...

, which was the title of the General Officer Commanding of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

units in Ceylon prior to independence in 1948. After the formation of the Ceylon Army in 1949, its first commander was of the rank of Brigadier, hence the title Commander of the Ceylon Army was formally adopted although it was at times referred as ''General Officer Commanding, Ceylon'' as far as the 1960s. Serving army commanders have by convention been of the rank of

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on th ...

, promoted to the honorary rank of

General A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". O ...

on retirement or after getting the appointment of Chief of Defence Staff, with the exception of

Sarath Fonseka Field Marshal Gardihewa Sarath Chandralal Fonseka ( si, ගාර්දිහේවා සරත් චන්ද්‍රලාල් ෆොන්සේකා, ta, சரத் பொன்சேகா; born 18 December 1950), commonly know ...

who was elevated to the rank of

while serving as Commander. Another notable figure was

Denis Perera General Deshamanya Joseph Everard Denis Perera, VSV, FCMI (10 October 1930 – 11 August 2013) was a senior Sri Lanka Army officer who served as Commander of the Sri Lankan Army from 1977 to 1981. He was also the Sri Lankan High Commission ...

, who was promoted to full general in 2007 after 26 years of retirement. The official residence of the commander is General's House, Colombo.

List of Commanders

References

External links

Former Army commandersThree Service Commanders promoted
{{Chief of the army by country * Sri Lanka Army Sri Lanka Army appointments

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

Lists of Sri Lankan military personnel