# William Gopallawa

William Gopallawa MBE (Sinhala: විලියම් ගොපල්ලව, Tamil: வில்லியம் கோப்பல்லாவ; 17 September 1896 – 31 January 1981) was a Sri Lankan politician and statesman who served as the last Governor-General of Ceylon from 1962 to 1972 and the first and only non-executive President of Sri Lanka from 1972 to 1978, when Ceylon declared itself a republic and changed its name to Sri Lanka.
Gopallawa served as Governor-General during the tenure of three different governments, two headed by Sirimavo Bandaranaike of the SLFP and one headed by Dudley Senanayake of the UNP.

## Early life and education

William Gopallawa was born on 17 September 1896 at the Dullewe Maha Walauwa, Dullewe, Aluvihare, a suburb of Matale. He was related to Dullewe Dissava, a signatory on behalf of the Sinhalese to the Kandiyan Convention of 1815, by his mother Tikiri Kumarihamy Dullewe. His father, Tikiri Bandara Gopallawa died when he was three years old.
He received his primary education at the Dullewe village school and at St. John's College, Kandy. He continued his secondary education at Dharmaraja College, Kandy where he was a Scout and later moved to St. Anthony's College, Kandy. After having sat the Cambridge Senior Certificate Examination in 1917, he returned to Matale and joined as one of the tutorial staff of the Buddhist English School and was also instrumental in setting up a library and a Scout troop for the benefit of the students there.

## Legal career

In 1920, Gopallawa joined the Ceylon Law College, Colombo and was enrolled as a Proctor and Notary Public in 1924. He started his legal practice as a junior to Bernard Aluwihare in the unofficial bar of Kandy and went on to develop a practice in Matale, Dumbara and Kandy from 1924 until he took up duties as Municipal Commissioner, Kandy in 1939. He continued his practice on and off until he became the Municipal Commissioner of Colombo Municipal Council.

## Political career

In 1926, Gopallawa contested and won in the Matale Urban Council Elections and served continuously in the council for a period of 13 years from 1926 to 1939. He served as the chairman of the Matale Urban Council for 5 years, at his office he was the youngest Urban Council Chairman in Ceylon at that time. In 1936, Gopallawa unsuccessfully contested for the Matale seat at the State Council Elections in 1936. In 1939, the Kandy Municipal Council was established and Gopallawa was appointed as the first Municipal Commissioner of Kandy. He served in that capacity throughout World War II and acquitted himself for efficiency during the great floods in 1950. In 1951, he was appointed as Municipal Commissioner of Colombo Municipal Council and served until 1957, when he stepped down from the post. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1953 Coronation Honours.

## Diplomatic role

On 18 June 1958 when S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike's government started diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, Gopallawa was posted as the second Ambassador to China in 1960. On 7 September 1961, while he was serving in China, he was recalled and posted as the Ambassador to the United States; he served there until 1962.

## Governor-General of Ceylon and President of Sri Lanka

In 1962, he was called back to Ceylon, after his son in law's sister, the then prime minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike nominated Gopallawa as Governor-General of Ceylon following Sir Oliver Goonetilleke's implication in the attempted military coup earlier that year. He was the second native Ceylonese Governor-General and the first Buddhist to hold the post as the viceregal representative of Queen Elizabeth II who was the head of state. Gopallawa served in this capacity until 1972, when he became the first President of Sri Lanka.
His constitutional decision to invite the UNP which won the majority of parliamentary seats in the 1965 general election, (but not enough for an absolute majority) is heralded as a landmark moment where he respected the nation's constitution and its people's wishes more than the wishes of the defeated SLFP government who had first appointed him, who wanted him to delay inviting the winning party to form the government. It averted a major crisis of leadership.
When Ceylon became the Republic of Sri Lanka on 22 May 1972, Gopallawa became the first president. Like the governor-general's post it replaced, the presidency was largely ceremonial. He stepped down from office in February 1978 when then Prime Minister Junius Richard Jayewardene became president following constitutional changes that effected the creation of an executive presidency.

## Faith

While he was a devout Buddhist, he respected all faiths and never failed to attend the annual Vel Hindu ceremony and never failed to host Christmas carols and also attended various Muslim ceremonies in his role as titular head of state; he was acutely cognizant of his role as a unifier of all Sri Lankans during his tenure. He was the first to establish a spartan Buddhist shrine room at the President's House.

## Family

On 8 March 1928, Gopallawa married Seelawathie Rambukwella; they had 5 children. He was survived by 4 children out of 5. One died early on while he was still working in Matale. His eldest daughter Chandrika Iranganie married Dr. Mackie Ratwatte, the private secretary and a brother of Sirimavo Bandaranaike. His oldest son Asoka is an entrepreneur businessman, His second daughter Chinthamani, was a teacher and landed proprietor, and his youngest son Monty Gopallawa who died in 2005, was a member of parliament and an affable cabinet minister in the government of President Chandrika Kumaratunga (daughter of Sirimavo Bandaranaike). He had 13 grandchildren; Chandhaka, Dhammika, Mano, Anushka, Devika, Avanthi, Sureka, Lehka, Shiranthani, Ashani, Mahen, Shanika and Dilani, and 1 known great-great-grandchild, named Vonal Gopallawa.

## Honours

* Member of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1953
* LLD (Honoris Causa) from the University of Ceylon in 1962
* LLD from the Vidyalankara in 1962
* D.Litt. from the Vidyodaya in 1962.