Thomas Skinner (Ceylon)

Infobox Military Person
name = Thomas Skinner
lived = flagicon|Sri Lanka British Ceylon
placeofbirth= St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada
placeofdeath= United Kingdom


caption =
nickname = Tom Skinner
serviceyears= 1819-1833
rank =Major
branch =
branch
commands =
unit =Ceylon Rifle Regiment
battles = 1848 Rebellion
awards =CMB
laterwork = Surveyor General, Commissioner of Highways

Major Thomas Skinner, CMB (born May 22, 1804 in St. John's, Newfoundland - died July 24, 1877) was a prominent road builder in British Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka). [Ellepola Somarathna 2006: 1]

Biography

Thomas Skinner was born in a family of a British military officer in Royal Artillery. In 1811, Young Thomas came to England with his father and studied in Shaftesbury, Dorsetshire. Dissatisfied with education, Thomas came to Ceylon in 1819 to visit his father who was stationed in Trincomalee. There he was commissioned in Ceylon Rifle Regiment as a Second Lieutenant. His first job was to carry a platoon of soldiers from Trincomalee to Colombo, shortly after the 1818 rebellion that was not completely suppressed yet.

Soon after he was appointed to the public works department which is responsible for building the roads in the island. There Thomas Skinner gained his lifelong lasting fame for constructing Colombo-Kandy highway. In 1825 he was appointed as head of the Colombo defense guard, in 1833 Lieutenant Quartermaster General and Surveyor General, and finally, in 1841, Skinner was promoted to Commissioner of Highways. He is also noted for mapping previously uncharted parts of Ceylon.

In 1848 Skinner gave a testimony before a Special Working Committee of British House of Commons on the Matale Rebellion. His impartial statement exposed the maladministration of the British that led to rebellion and how British policies altered traditional ways of life of the native Sinhalese.

Skinner retired from civil service in 1867, and was celebrated for his achievements by British administration, planters, newspapers as well as local Mudaliyars. Thomas Skinner went to England and received CMB from Queen Victoria. Skinnner wrote an autobiography, "Fifty Years in Ceylon".

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