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 p ...

Lambert Wilfred Alexander de Soysa also known as Sir Wilfred de Soysa (20 Feb 1884 - 3 May 1968) was a

Ceylonese Sri Lankan or Ceylonese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Sri Lanka * A person from Sri Lanka, see Demographics of Sri Lanka ** Sinhalese people, the ethnic majority ** Sri Lankan Tamils, an ethnic minority ** Sri L ...

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

, landed proprietor and philanthropist. He was the seventh son of Sir

Charles Henry de Soysa Charles Henry de Soysa Dharmagunawardana Vipula Jayasuriya Karunaratna Disanayaka popularly known as Charles Henry de Soysa, JP (3 March 1836 – 29 September 1890) was a Ceylonese entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was a pioneering planter, ind ...

and Lady Catherine de Soysa. Born at Alfred House Colombo and educated privately, then at

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 ...

and

Prince of Wales' College, Moratuwa Prince of Wales' College ( Sinhala: වේල්ස් කුමර විද්‍යාලය ''Wels Kumara Vidyalaya'', Tamil: பிரின்ஸ் ஆஃப் வேல்ஸ் கல்லூரி) is a selective entry boys' school s ...

, he completed his studies at the

Royal Agricultural College ;(from Virgil's Georgics)"Caring for the Fieldsand the Beasts" , established = 2013 - University status – College , type = Public , president = King Charles , vice_chancellor = Peter McCaffery , students ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

.Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon, by Arnold Wright, pp.538-54 (Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company) De Soysa was successful as a

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...

and

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family ( Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the ...

planter and established the firm De Soysa & Co. He was also a member of the Ceylon National Association and was part of the Lanka Mahajana Sabha delegation to the

Donoughmore Commission The Donoughmore Commission (DC) was responsible for the creation of the Donoughmore Constitution in effect between 1931–47 in Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka). In 1931 there were approximately 12% Ceylonese Tamils, 12% Indian Tamils (migrant an ...

. He was a proprietor of the '' Ceylon Morning Leader newspaper''A brief history of local and foreign newspapers
KKS Perera (Daily News) Retrieved 25 October 2019 and had played host to the young

Hirohito Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

and

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

. He was knighted in the

1938 New Year Honours The 1938 New Year Honours were appointments by King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the United Kingdom and British Empire. They were announced on 1 January 1938.United Kingdom and Britis ...

as a

Knights Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are the ...

. De Soysa married Senator Evelyn Yohana (née Fernando)150th Anniversary Publication of the Holy Emmanuel Church, p. 23, Retrieved 30 August 2015 and their first son

Harold de Soysa Charles Harold Wilfred de Soysa MA (1907-1971) was the first Ceylonese Anglican Bishop of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Born to Sir Wilfred and Lady Evelyn de Soysa, he was educated at Royal College, Colombo and graduated from Oriel College, Oxford o ...

was the first Ceylonese Anglican

Bishop of Colombo Bishop of Colombo may refer to: * Anglican Bishop of Colombo The Anglican Bishop of Colombo is the ecclesiastical head of the Anglican Diocese of Colombo, a diocese in the Church of Ceylon which is part of the Anglican Communion. The Anglican D ...

. His second son Cecil de Soysa was the founding

Chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

of the Ceylon Tourist Board and the Chairman of Ceylon Shipping Lines. In 1954 his third son Terence de Soysa was appointed as the first Sri Lankan Chairman of the

Ceylon Chamber of Commerce The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce is the oldest and one of leading business chambers in Sri Lanka. It is a confederation of trade associations, regional- and sectoral chambers of commerce and industry, business councils and employer organisations in ...

His fourth son

Ryle de Soysa Gahmini Ryle Johannes de Soysa (21 June 1917 – 13 January 2002) was a Sri Lankan first-class cricketer. The son of Wilfred and Evelyn de Soysa, he was born at Colombo in June 1917. He was educated in Colombo at Royal College, captaining th ...

was the opening batsman for the All-Ceylon (National Team) between 1938–45 and represented the

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, the

Sinhalese Sports Club The Singhalese Sports Club (SSC) is a first-class cricket club in Sri Lanka. Singhalese is the most successful club in Sri Lankan domestic cricket, having won the Premier Trophy a record 32 times to 2017. Although the name is correctly spelt wi ...

(of which he was later president) and captained the

first XI team to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in 1936. Sinhalese Sports Club: Home of Lankan cricket
Ryhanna Salie, Sunday Observer, Retrieved 24 March 2019

References

External links

Chloe de Soysa Collection

Tribute to the Bawa Brothers

Kodigaha Kanda forest sanctuary
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Soysa, Wilfred Ceylonese Knights Bachelor Sinhalese businesspeople Sri Lankan Christians Sri Lankan philanthropists Alumni of Prince of Wales' College, Moratuwa People from Colombo People from Moratuwa Wilfred Alumni of the Royal Agricultural University Alumni of Royal College, Colombo