Lakshman Wickremasinghe

Revd. Dr. Lakshman Wickremasinghe (1927 - 1983) was one of the youngest Bishops in the Church of England and Human Rights activist.

Early life & Education

Born in 1927, he was the third son of Cyril Wickremesinghe of the Ceylon Civil Service and Esme Goonewardene. His one brother of his brothers were Esmond Wickramasinghe the press baron.

He educated at Royal College, Colombo and S Thomas' Gurutalawa, he achieved the best first in political science from the University of Ceylon, then went to Oxford but did not finish his Masters, and went to theological college at Ely. He was ordained and then worked in the East End of London.

Career

He returned to Sri Lanka and became Chaplain at Peradeniya University and then was consecrated Bishop of Kurunagala at the end of 1962, when he was just 35. He was the successor to Lakdasa de Mel who had become Anglican Metropolitan of all four former British colonies, India, Burma, Pakistan (then including East Pakistan, the future Bangladesh), and Ceylon.

Human Rights Activist

He got very involved in Human Rights activities after 1971, was Chairman of the Civil Rights Movement and did lots of agitation about the authoritarianism of J.R. Jayawardene's government and in particular its attacks on Tamils. He suffered a heart attack in 1981 and was advised to take things slow and had a year in England, where he was in July 1983 when Black July took place. He returned to Sri Lanka, and was one of the first leaders to go up to Jaffna, but all this caused another heart attack and he died in October that year.

The character of Harry in Acts of Faith,1985 written by Rajiva Wijesinha is based on him.