William Gopallawa

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Template:Short description Template:Use Sri Lankan English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox president William Gopallawa Template:Post-nominals (Template:Langx, Template:Langx; 17 September 1896 – 31 January 1981) was a Sri Lankan politician and statesman who served as the last Governor-General of Ceylon from 1962 to 1972 and the first and only non-executive President of Sri Lanka from 1972 to 1978, when Ceylon declared itself a republic and changed its name to Sri Lanka.

Gopallawa served as Governor-General during the tenure of three different governments, two headed by Sirimavo Bandaranaike of the SLFP and one headed by Dudley Senanayake of the UNP.

He is also known as a Reformist.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Early life and education

William Gopallawa was born on 17 September 1896 at the Dullewe Maha Walauwa, Dullewe, Aluvihare, a suburb of Matale. He was related to Dullewe Dissava, a signatory on behalf of the Sinhalese to the Kandiyan Convention of 1815, by his mother Tikiri Kumarihamy Dullewe. His father, Tikiri Bandara Gopallawa died when he was three years old.<ref name=Dailynewsbio>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>William Gopallawa: a dignified symbol of the nation. Sunday Observer (Sri Lanka), Retrieved 17 July 2022.</ref>

He received his primary education at the Dullewe village school and at St. John's College, Kandy. He continued his secondary education at Dharmaraja College, Kandy where he was a Scout and later moved to St. Anthony's College, Kandy.<ref name=Dailynewsbio/> After having sat the Cambridge Senior Certificate Examination in 1917, he returned to Matale and joined as one of the tutorial staff of the Buddhist English School and was also instrumental in setting up a library and a Scout troop for the benefit of the students there.

In 1920, Gopallawa joined the Ceylon Law College, Colombo and was enrolled as a Proctor and Notary Public in 1924. He started his legal practice as a junior to Bernard Aluwihare in the unofficial bar of Kandy and went on to develop a practice in Matale, Dumbara and Kandy from 1924 until he took up duties as Municipal Commissioner, Kandy in 1939. He continued his practice on and off until he became the Municipal Commissioner of Colombo Municipal Council.

File:H.E William Gopallawa & Dr Nissanka Wijeyeratne- brightened.jpg
President William Gopallawa and First Lady Seela Gopallawa with Diyawadana Nilame Dr. Nissanka Wijeyeratne at the Sri Dalada Maligawa, Kandy

Political career

In 1926, Gopallawa contested and won in the Matale Urban Council Elections and served continuously in the council for a period of 13 years from 1926 to 1939. He served as the chairman of the Matale Urban Council for 5 years, at his office he was the youngest Urban Council Chairman in Ceylon at that time. In 1936, Gopallawa unsuccessfully contested for the Matale seat at the State Council Elections in 1936. In 1939, the Kandy Municipal Council was established and Gopallawa was appointed as the first Municipal Commissioner of Kandy. He served in that capacity throughout World War II and acquitted himself for efficiency during the great floods in 1950. In 1951, he was appointed as Municipal Commissioner of Colombo Municipal Council and served until 1957, when he stepped down from the post. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1953 Coronation Honours.

Diplomatic role

On 18 June 1958 when S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike's government started diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, Gopallawa was posted as the second Ambassador to China in 1960. On 7 September 1961, while he was serving in China, he was recalled and posted as the Ambassador to the United States; he served there until 1962.

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Ambassador William Gopallawa meets with President of the United States John F. Kennedy in the Oval Office of the White House, 7 September 1961

Governor-General of Ceylon and President of Sri Lanka

In 1962, he was called back to Ceylon, after his son in law's sister, the then prime minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike nominated Gopallawa as Governor-General of Ceylon following Sir Oliver Goonetilleke's implication in the attempted military coup earlier that year. He was the second native Ceylonese Governor-General and the first Buddhist to hold the post as the viceregal representative of Queen Elizabeth II who was the head of state. Gopallawa served in this capacity until 1972, when he became the first President of Sri Lanka.

His constitutional decision to invite the UNP which won the majority of parliamentary seats in the 1965 general election, (but not enough for an absolute majority) is heralded as a landmark moment where he respected the nation's constitution and its people's wishes more than the wishes of the defeated SLFP government who had first appointed him, who wanted him to delay inviting the winning party to form the government. It averted a major crisis of leadership.

When Ceylon became the Republic of Sri Lanka on 22 May 1972, Gopallawa became the first president. Like the governor-general's post it replaced, the presidency was largely ceremonial. He stepped down from office in February 1978 when then Prime Minister Junius Richard Jayewardene became president following constitutional changes that effected the creation of an executive presidency.

Honours

See also

References

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