Walwin de Silva

The University of Colombo awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) in 1985.

In 1966, he was an appointed a member of the National Council for Higher Education established under the Higher Education Act No. 20 of 1966. In 1968 he was appointed as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ceylon, Colombo, which he held until 1969. He and his wife endowed two scholarships: the Gita de Silva Memorial scholarship in memory of their daughter and the Sunil de Silva Memorial scholarship in memory of their son.

After retiring from the civil service in the late 1940s, he was elected to parliament as independent candidate from the Ambalangoda-Balapitiya electorate in a May 1950 by-election.

Having gained admission to the Ceylon Civil Service through the entrance examination, he underwent training as a cadet. In 1927 he was appointed as an Assistant Government Agent. He went on to serve as Assistant Commissioner in Galle, Kegalle, Badulla and Government Agent of Puttalam and other Kachcheries. Thereafter he was posted to the Food Department in Colombo as the Deputy Food Controller. This was during World War II when he was responsible for managing the food supply of the island with careful rationing. He also served as Secretary to the then Minister of Communications of the State Council, Sir John Kotelawala. Thereafter he served as Additional Director and later Acting Director of Education.

Walwin was born on 12 August 1905 in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) at Balapitiya. His father Dr O.A. de Silva, was a registered medical practitioner attached to the Department of Health. He had a younger brother Colvin who became a Trotskyist leader and served as the Cabinet Minister of Plantation Industries and Constitutional Affairs.