Cholomondeley Goonewardene

The Honourable
Cholomondeley de Fonseka Goonewardene
Member of Parliament
Minister of Public Works
In office
1964–1965
Personal details
Born(1917-09-16)16 September 1917
Kalutara, Ceylon
Died25 November 2006(2006-11-25) (aged 89)
Kalutara, Sri Lanka
Political partyLanka Sama Samaja Party
SpouseUdawattage Cecilin de Silva
Alma materS. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia
London School of Economics
OccupationLawyer
EthnicitySinhalese

Cholomondeley de Fonseka Goonewardene (චොල්මොණ්ඩලේ ද නොව චමලි ද නොව චම්ලි) (16 September 1917 – 25 November 2006) was a prominent Sri Lankan politician, Member of Parliament, and cabinet minister.[1]

Born in Kalutara to a local Muhandiram family, Goonewardene was educated at Holy Cross College, Kalutara and S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia. He later qualified as an advocate and started his legal practice in Unofficial Bar in Kalutara in 1946.[2] He was one of the early members of the Marxist Lanka Sama Samaja Party – the first political party in Sri Lanka- and founded its Kalutara Branch in 1937 and in 1940 he was elected to the Kalutara Urban Council.[3] Giving up his legal practice, Goonewardene took up full time political work. Representing the Lanka Sama Samaja Party he was the member of parliament on several occasions for the Kalutara electorate from 1947 to 1977 and between such terms he served as Chairman of the Kalutara Urban Council from 1954 to 1956 and again in the 1960s.[4] In June 1964 he was appointed Minister of Works in the First Sirimavo Bandaranaike cabinet.[5][6] He was the last surviving member to have served on the first Parliament of Ceylon.[4] He was a cousin of Leslie Goonewardene and an older brother of former senior member of the Ceylon Civil Service (CCS) and Prime Minister’s Secretary Eardley (E.G.) Goonewardene.

  1. ^ "Hon. Goonewardene, Cholmondeley de Fonseka, M.P." Directory of Past Members. Parliament of Sri Lanka. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  2. ^ "Death of Cholomondeley Goonewardene". Sunday Observer. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  3. ^ "Featur07".
  4. ^ a b "Cholmondeley passes away at 89". The Nation. 26 November 2006. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  5. ^ Rajasingham, K. T. "Chapter 19: Anguish and pain". Sri Lanka: The Untold Story. Archived from the original on 18 December 2001.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  6. ^ University of California, Berkeley. Institute of International Studies (January 1965). "Asian Survey". 5 (1). University of California Press: 122. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)