Walwin Arnold de Silva, CCS was a

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 ...

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

. He was the

Vice-Chancellor A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system. In most Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth and former Commonwealth n ...

of the

University of Ceylon, Colombo The University of Ceylon was the only university in Sri Lanka (earlier Ceylon) from 1942 until 1972. It had several constituent campuses at various locations around Sri Lanka. The University of Ceylon Act No. 1 of 1972, replaced it with the Unive ...

and a Member of Parliament.

Education

Walwin was born on 12 August 1905 in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) at Balapitiya. His father Dr O.A. de Silva, was a registered medical practitioner attached to the Department of Health. He had a younger brother Colvin who became a

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...

leader and served as the Cabinet Minister of Plantation Industries and Constitutional Affairs. He along with his brother received their primary education at St. John's College Panadura and went on to the

Royal College, Colombo Royal College, Colombo is a selective entry boys' school located in Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Started as a private school by Rev Joseph Marsh in 1835, it was established as the Colombo Academy by Sir Robert Wilmot-Horton in Janua ...

for secondary education. Entering University College, Ceylon, he studied mathematics under Professor

C. Suntharalingam Chellappah Suntharalingam ( ta, செல்லப்பா சுந்தரலிங்கம்; 19 August 1895 – 11 February 1985) was a Ceylon Tamil academic, politician, Member of Parliament and government minister. Early life and f ...

going on to gain an honours degree in Mathematics from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

Civil service

Having gained admission to the

Ceylon Civil Service The Ceylon Civil Service, popularly known by its acronym CCS, was the premier civil service of the Government of Ceylon under British colonial rule and in the immediate post-independence period. Established in 1833, it functioned as part of the ...

through the entrance examination, he underwent training as a cadet. In 1927 he was appointed as an

Assistant Government Agent A Government Agent (GA) or a District Secretary is a Sri Lankan civil servant of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service appointed by the central government to govern a certain district of the country. The GA is the administrative head of public servic ...

. He went on to serve as Assistant Commissioner in

Galle Galle ( si, ගාල්ල, translit=Gālla; ta, காலி, translit=Kāli) (formerly Point de Galle) is a major city in Sri Lanka, situated on the southwestern tip, from Colombo. Galle is the provincial capital and largest city of Souther ...

Kegalle Kegalle ( si, කෑගල්ල; ta, கேகாலை) is a large town in Sabaragamuwa Province of Sri Lanka. It is located on the Colombo–Kandy road, approximately from Colombo and from Kandy. It is the main town in the Kegalle District ...

Badulla Badulla ( si, බදුල්ල, ta, பதுளை) is the capital and the largest city of Uva Province situated in the lower central hills of Sri Lanka. It is the capital city of Uva Province and the Badulla District. Geography Badulla is ...

and Government Agent of

Puttalam Puttalam ( si, පුත්තලම, translit=Puttalama; ta, புத்தளம், translit=Puttaḷam) is the largest town in Puttalam District, North Western Province, Sri Lanka. Puttalam is the administrative capital of the Puttalam ...

and other

Kachcheri A kachcheri or district secretariat is the principal government department that administrates a district in Sri Lanka. Each of the 25 districts has a kachcheri. The main tasks of the District Secretariat involve coordinating communications and ac ...

es.The Golden Plain Life and times of Alhaj H.S. Ismail
/ref> Thereafter he was posted to the Food Department in Colombo as the Deputy Food Controller. This was during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

when he was responsible for managing the food supply of the island with careful rationing. He also served as Secretary to the then Minister of Communications of the

State Council State Council may refer to: Government * State Council of the Republic of Korea, the national cabinet of South Korea, headed by the President * State Council of the People's Republic of China, the national cabinet and chief administrative auth ...

, Sir

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 ...

. Thereafter he served as Additional Director and later Acting Director of Education.

Politics

After retiring from the civil service in the late 1940s, he was elected to parliament as independent candidate from the Ambalangoda-Balapitiya electorate in a May 1950 by-election.

Later work

In 1966, he was an appointed a member of the National Council for Higher Education established under the Higher Education Act No. 20 of 1966. In 1968 he was appointed as

of the

, which he held until 1969. He and his wife endowed two scholarships: the Gita de Silva Memorial scholarship in memory of their daughter and the Sunil de Silva Memorial scholarship in memory of their son. He also served as Executive Director and thereafter Chairman of the Ceylon and Foreign Trades Ltd after the death of P. Saravanamuttu. He was the Chairman of the Development Finance Corporation of Ceylon (DFCC) and a member of the Board of Directors of the People's Bank.

Honours

The

University of Colombo (Buddhih Sarvatra Bhrajate) , mottoeng = ''Wisdom Enlightens'' , established = , endowment = Sri Lankan rupee, LKR 1.461 1,000,000,000 (number), billion

awarded him an honorary

Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Doctor ...

(

Honoris Causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

) in 1985.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:de Silva, Walwin 1905 births Sinhalese civil servants Vice-Chancellors of the University of Ceylon Members of the 1st Parliament of Ceylon Alumni of Royal College, Colombo Alumni of the Ceylon University College Year of death missing