Peduru Hewage William de Silva (8 December 1908 – 30 July 1988) was a 20th-century Marxist/Trotskyist Sri Lankan politician.

P. H. William de Silva was born at Kahatapitiya in Batapola, Ambalangoda, Ceylon, to a wealthy land-owning family. He received his elementary education at Batapola Mixed School and secondary education at St John's College, Panadura, Richmond College, Galle, and Ananda College, Colombo. He studied for one year at the University College Colombo (now the University of Colombo) and then travelled to England for further studies at University College, Oxford.

William de Silva

While in England, William de Silva joined the India League and a Marxist study group with other Ceylonese students in London. He then returned to Ceylon and joined the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP). During World War II, he was an anti-war movement leader and was imprisoned in Bogambara Prison and Badulla Prison in Sri Lanka (1943–45). He became a Ceylonese Member of Parliament in 1947 and 1953. He was leader of the All-Ceylon Estate Workers Union and Vice-President of the All-Ceylon Congress of Samasamaja Youth Leagues. He separated from the LSSP in October 1953 and joined the Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party (VLLSP). He was the founding leader of Mahajana Eksath Peramuna. He was Cabinet Minister of Industries and Fisheries in S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike's SLFP-MEP coalition government (1956–59). He became a member of parliament in 1960 and was Vice-President of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. In 1970, he became the Ceylon High Commissioner to Canada.

William de Silva

De Silva died aged 79.

William de Silva

See also

List of Sri Lankan non-career diplomats

List of Sri Lankan independence activists

List of University of Oxford people in public life overseas

List of alumni of University College, Oxford

References

1908 births

1988 deaths

Alumni of the Ceylon University College

Alumni of Richmond College, Galle

Alumni of University College, Oxford

Fisheries ministers of Sri Lanka

High Commissioners of Sri Lanka to Canada

Industries ministers of Sri Lanka

Lanka Sama Samaja Party politicians

Members of the 1st Parliament of Ceylon

Members of the 2nd Parliament of Ceylon

Members of the 3rd Parliament of Ceylon

Members of the 4th Parliament of Ceylon

Members of the 6th Parliament of Ceylon

People from British Ceylon

Prisoners and detainees of British Ceylon

Sinhalese trade unionists

Sri Lankan independence activists

Sri Lankan prisoners and detainees