Kanagaratnam Sriskandan (12 August 1930 – 21 April 2010) 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 ...

n born

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

and

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 former Chief Highway Engineer, of Under Secretary Grade at the British

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...

Lankan bridge engineer who rose to the top in the British Civil Service
/ref> Sriskandan received his primary education at

Jaffna Central College Jaffna Central College ( ta, யாழ்ப்பாணம் மத்திய கல்லூரி ''Yāḻppāṇam Mattiya Kallūri'', JCC) is a national school in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. Founded in 1816 by British Methodist missionaries, it ...

, and went on

S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia , motto_translation = Be Thou Forever , song = Thomian Song , athletics = Yes , sports = Yes , nickname = Thora , denomination = Anglican , patron ...

briefly and completed his secondary education 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 ...

. His father was Dr Kanagaratnam. He joined the

Ceylon Technical College Maradana College of Technology is the oldest technical college in Sri Lanka. Formally known as the Ceylon Technical College which was an institution of higher education for Technical and Scientific fields in Ceylon and a government department. It ...

to study civil engineering, when the engineering of the Technical College was transferred to the newly established

University of Ceylon 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 Univer ...

. Joining Public Works Department as an Assistant Engineer, he left Ceylon in 1956 and migrated to

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

to specialize in bridge engineering. He was a member of the team that assessed proposals for the

channel tunnel The Channel Tunnel (french: Tunnel sous la Manche), also known as the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that connects Folkestone (Kent, England, UK) with Coquelles ( Hauts-de-France, France) beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. ...

, Anglo-French Safety Authority, Council member of the British Standards Institute, Council of the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

. After his retirement in 1988, he served as a director of the Mott Macdonald Group for five years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sriskandan, Kanagaratnam 1930 births 2010 deaths British civil servants British civil engineers Sri Lankan Tamil civil engineers Alumni of Royal College, Colombo Alumni of the University of Ceylon English people of Sri Lankan Tamil descent Alumni of Jaffna Central College Alumni of S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia Alumni of the Maradana College of Technology