A. F. Wijemanne

Senator
A. F. Wijemanne
Minister of Justice
Senator of Ceylon
Sri Lankan Ambassador to Italy and Permanent Representative to FAO
Personal details
OccupationPolitician
ProfessionBarrister

Alexander Fairlie Wijemanne was a Sri Lankan lawyer and politician. He was a Minister of Justice as an elected member of the Senate of Ceylon and served as Sri Lankan Ambassador to Italy and Permanent Representative to FAO.[1][2]

Having qualified as a barrister, Wijemanne established his practice as an advocate in the unofficial bar in Matara.[3] A founding member of the United National Party, he first contested the 1947 general election from the Hakmana Electoral District and polled 4th. He was later elected to the Senate of Ceylon and was appointed Minister of Justice by Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake in March 1965 and served till 1970. In 1972, he led the United National Party majority in the Senate when it was abolished. In 1977, he was appointed Sri Lankan Ambassador to Italy and Permanent Representative to FAO.

Wijemanne married Margie Sharlett Jayewardene, daughter of Colonel T. G. Jayewardene and sister of Major T. F. Jayewardene. She was a cousin of J. R. Jayewardene, the first Executive President of Sri Lanka.[4] They had five children.[5]

  1. ^ "Premalal Kumarasiri - dedicated Communist". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2013-07-12.
  2. ^ "Alexander Fairlie-Wijemanne, nuovo ambasciatore di Sri Lanka: presentazione lettere credenziali". 26 July 1978.
  3. ^ Fergusons Ceylon Directory (PDF). historyofceylontea.lk. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  4. ^ Jiggins, Janice (7 June 1979). Caste and Family Politics Sinhalese 1947-1976. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521220699. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  5. ^ "Fairly Wijemanne".