Deshamanya Duncan White, Major Major Deshamanya Duncan White, MBE, ED (March 1, 1918 – July 3, 1998) was a Sri Lankan athlete. He was Ceylon's first Olympic medalist, taking silver in the 400-meter hurdles in the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, England. He attended St. Peter's College, Colombo and then went on to study economics at Oxford University. After graduating, he worked as an accountant for Price Waterhouse before turning to full-time athletics in 1945. In 1947, he married Jane Wightman with whom he had three children. In 1951, White joined the staff of the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) as its financial secretary. He held this post until 1975 when he returned to Sri Lanka to work as an accountant for John de Silva & Sons Ltd. He later became involved in politics, serving as an elected member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka from 1989 to 1994. Major Major Deshamanya Duncan White was born on 1 March 1918 in Kandy, Ceylon. His father, Major Duncan White, was a British civil servant who had been sent by his government to set up a police college in Kandy. When Sir Malcolm Arnold, the head of the college, died under mysterious circumstances, Major Duncan White took over as acting director until he could be replaced by a new appointee.