# Postmaster General of Sri Lanka

The Postmaster General of Sri Lanka is the appointed head of Sri Lanka Post, which is a government department. The current Postmaster General is Ranjith Ariyaratne.

## History

The first mail service in Ceylon, was in 1788, established by the Dutch East India Company between Holland and Batavia via the Cape of Good Hope and Dutch Ceylon. They established postal offices in the coastal trading centres of Colombo, Galle, Jaffna and Mannar. In 1795 the Dutch were expelled by the British and the Maritime Provinces were initially administered by the British East India Company. Two years later Ceylon became a Crown Colony. In 1798, a British officer, Captain Kennedy, was appointed as a competent postal authority.
In 1815, following the signing of the Kandyan Convention the British took control of the entire country. They re-organised the postal service and a permanent post office was established in Colombo in 1882. The first official Post Master General of Ceylon was Egbert Bletterman, who was the PMG for the whole island. In 1817, Lewis Sansoni succeeded Bletterman as the second Postmaster General. The third Postmaster General was Major George Stewart and during his period he was instrumental in extending the postal services to major towns in the country.

## List of Postmasters General of Sri Lanka

| # | Postmaster General | Took office | Left office | Appointed by | Notes |
| 1 | Egbert Bletterman | 1815 | 1817 | Robert Brownrigg | first official Postmaster General |
| 2 | Louis Sansoni | 1817 | 1826 | Robert Brownrigg | |
| 3 | George William Stewart | 1826 | 1833 | Edward Barnes | |
| 4 | George Lee | 1833 | 1859 | Robert Wilmot-Horton | longest serving Postmaster General |
| 5 | William Barton | 1859 | 1867 | Charles Justin MacCarthy | |
| 6 | Herbert Webb Gillman | 1867 | 1871 | Hercules Robinson | |
| 7 | Thomas Edward Barnes Skinner | 1871 | 1896 | Hercules Robinson | |
| 8 | Charles Edward Ducat Pennycuick | 1896 | 1899 | Joseph West Ridgeway | |
| 9 | Henry Luttrell Moysey | 1900 | 1906 | Joseph West Ridgeway | |
| 10 | Arthur Sampson Pagden | 1906 | 1913 | Henry Arthur Blake | |
| 11 | Francis Jagoe Smith | 1913 | 1923 | Reginald Edward Stubbs | |
| 12 | Maurice Salvador Sreshta | 1923 | 1928 | William Henry Manning | first non-European Postmaster General |
| 13 | Harry Archibald Burden | 1929 | 1933 | Herbert Stanley | |
| 14 | John Radley Walters | 1933 | 1940 | Reginald Edward Stubbs | |
| 15 | John Pringle Appleby | 1940 | 1947 | Andrew Caldecott | |
| 15 | Abdon Ignatius Perera | 1947 | 1951 | Henry Monck-Mason Moore | first Ceylonese Postmaster General |
| 16 | Victor A. Nicholas | 1951 | 1956 | Viscount Soulbury | second Ceylonese Postmaster General |
| 17 | H. E. Seneviratne | 1956 | 1961 | | |
| 18 | D. G. Dayaratne | 1961 | 1962 | | |
| 19 | A. S. Kohomban-Wickrema | 1962 | 1964 | | |
| 20 | A. L. Perera | 1964 | 1968 | | |
| 21 | G. E. de S. Ellawala | 1968 | 1968 | | |
| 22 | Vernon Abeysekera | 1969 | 1970 | | |
| 23 | C. J. Serasinghe | 1970 | 1973 | | |
| 24 | A. R. M. Jayawardene | 1973 | 1980 | | |
| 25 | A. P. Hapudeniya | 1980 | 1984 | | |
| 26 | U. W. Bandara | 1985 | 1986 | | |
| 27 | A. B. Damunupola | 1986 | - | | |
| 28 | K. A. S. Senadheera | | | | |
| 29 | M. K. B. Dissanayake | 2008 | 2012 | | |
| 30 | Rohana Abhayaratne | 2012 | 10 July 2018 | | |
| 31 | Ranjith Ariyaratne | 14 August 2018 | Incumbent | | |