Theodore Godfrey Wijesinghe Jayewardene

Who was Theodore Godfrey Wijesinghe Jayewardene?

Colonel Theodore Godfrey Wijesinghe Jayewardene, JP, CLI was a Ceylonese engineer, politician and military officer. A member of the State Council of Ceylon, he was the first Ceylonese commanding officer of the Ceylon Light Infantry.

Born to James Alfred Jayewardene, a Proctor who was the Deputy Coroner of Colombo, Jayewardene was educated at the prestigious Royal College Colombo. His bothers were Hector Alfred Jayewardene, Justice Eugene Wilfred Jayewardene, KC and Justice John Adrian St. Valentine Jayewardene.

After becoming an engineer, he joined the Public Works Department in 1895 as an assistant engineer and in 1900 became a fully qualified Civil Engineer. He joined the Ceylon Light Infantry, a reservist regiment of the Ceylon Defence Force, in 1889 as a private. However he was later commissioned and quickly climbed though the ranks becoming a Major in 1908. In 1921 he was appointed as the Military Intelligence Officer of the Ceylon Defence Force. He became the first Ceylonese commanding officer of the Ceylon Light Infantry and reached the rank of Colonel, the highest rank a Ceylonese could achieve in the colonial era. He was elected to the State Council of Ceylon in 1933 from the Balangoda seat and held it till 1936.