Queen's Cottage (also known as the ''President's House'' or ''The Lodge'') is a

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

near

Nuwara Eliya Nuwara Eliya ( si, නුවර එළිය ; ta, நுவரெலியா) is a city in the hill country of the Central Province, Sri Lanka. Its name means "city on the plain (table land)" or "city of light". The city is the administrativ ...

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 ...

. It is the vacationing and country residence of the

President of Sri Lanka The President of Sri Lanka ( si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජනාධිපති ''Śrī Laṃkā Janādhipathi''; ta, இலங்கை சனாதிபதி ''Ilankai janātipati'') is the head of state and head of government of t ...

. Located within the limits of the Nuwara Eliya Municipal Council along the Queen Elizabeth Drive, it is a protected monument under the ''Antiquities Ordinance''.

History

Built as an

English country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

in 1893 by the British Colonial administration of the island as the summer residence for the

Governor of Ceylon {{Use dmy dates, date=November 2019 The Governor of Ceylon can refer to historical vice-regal representatives of three colonialism, colonial powers: Portuguese Ceylon * List of Captains of Portuguese Ceylon (1518–1551) * List of Captain-majors of ...

, Sir

William Henry Gregory Sir William Henry Gregory PC (Ire) KCMG (13 July 1816 – 6 March 1892) was an Anglo-Irish writer and politician, who is now less remembered than his wife Augusta, Lady Gregory, the playwright, co-founder and Director of Dublin's Abbey Theatre, ...

. Gregory controversially sold the Governor's seasonal residence in Galle and constructed this new official residence without the consent of the

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of col ...

. It was constructed for the sum of £1,500 and the ballroom and drawing room were designed by Herbert Frederick Tomalin (1852-1944), an English architect/engineer in the Public Works Department, who also designed and supervised the construction of the General Post Office in Colombo. It was frequented by subsequent Governors and their guests between January and May to escape the tropical heat of

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

in ''Little England'' as Nuwara Eliya was known. It was at the Queen's Cottage,

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

John Anderson John Anderson may refer to: Business *John Anderson (Scottish businessman) (1747–1820), Scottish merchant and founder of Fermoy, Ireland * John Byers Anderson (1817–1897), American educator, military officer and railroad executive, mentor of ...

fell ill and later died on 24 March 1918. He was the only British Governor to die in Ceylon. In 1947, Sir Robert Drayton, Chief Secretary and Barclay Nihill, Legal Secretary reviewed and approved the draft of the first constitution of Ceylon that had been drafted by

Bernard Peiris Bernard Percival Peiris, OBE, JP (29 March 1908 – 18 January 1977) was a Sri Lankan lawyer. He was the former Cabinet Secretary and the Legal Draftsmen who drafted the ''Ceylon Order in Council'', the first constitution of independent Ceyl ...

on the request of D S Senanayake. Since independence in 1948 the house became the official vacationing residence of the

Governor General of Ceylon The Governor-General of Ceylon was the representative of the Ceylonese monarch in the Dominion of Ceylon from the country's independence in 1948 until it became the republic of Sri Lanka in 1972. History There were four governors-general. ...

and since 1972 the President after Sri Lanka became a republic. However, since independence it has been used by the Prime Minister as well. On 31 December 1953 the

Cabinet of Ceylon In Sri Lanka, the Cabinet of Ministers is the council of ministers that form the central government of Sri Lanka. The body of senior ministers responsible and answerable to the Parliament of Sri Lanka. The President is a member of the cabinet ...

meet for an urgent meeting under Prime Minister

John Kotelawala General Sir John Lionel Kotelawala ( si, ශ්‍රිමත් ජෝන් ලයනල් කොතලාවල; 4 April 1897 – 2 October 1980) was a Sri Lankan statesman, who served as the 3rd Prime Minister of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) fro ...

. It was formally recognised and declared a ‘Protected Monument’, under the Antiquities Ordinance (Chapter 188), by the Minister of Cultural Affairs and National Heritage on 23 February 2007.

History

See also

References

Further reading