L. H. Sumanadasa

Sumanadasa was born on 3 December 1910 in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) at Ambalangoda. He was educated at Dharmasoka College, Ambalangoda and Ananda College, Colombo[1] at the time when Patrick de Silva Kularatne was its principal. He completed his BSc degree in physics at Ceylon University College and was awarded the Ceylon Government Scholarship to study aeronautical engineering at Imperial College, London in 1932 Graduating BSc and DIC (postgraduate Diploma of Imperial College).[2]

He learnt to fly with the London Aeroplane Club at Hatfield with Geoffrey de Havilland, Jr. as his instructor and made his first solo in and passed his A licence in 1934 (flying a DH.60G Gipsy Moth with a Gipsy II 120 hp engine) obtaining a private pilot's licence.[3] He was a student member and later a full member of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

After graduating (the first person from Sri Lanka to qualify in aeronautical engineering) he was hired by Handley Page Ltd where he worked as a junior technical assistant and later as a senior technical assistant in the design office. When war broke out he volunteered his services to the Royal Air Force and was a member of the RAF Volunteer reserve. However his technical and knowledge of aeronautical design at Handley Page made it impossible for him to be deployed on active service[4] although his Ceylonese compatriots in the RAFVR, Rohan Amerasekera (later to command Sri Lankas Airforce), Mickey Dias ( later First Law Fellow, Director of Studies and Professor of Jurisprudence at Magdalene College, Cambridge), Rex de Silva, Pilot Officer Ananda Kularatne (son of Sumanadasa's school principal) and Dougald Abayasekera (former cricket captain and head prefect of S. Thomas' College, Mt Lavinia)[5] saw active service. Sumanadasa, his wife and daughter returned to Sri Lanka in October 1942. His daughter later described the voyage through U Boat infested waters and storms during which all ships but theirs was lost.[6]

Despite his skills and experience in aeronautical engineering the government of Ceylon deployed him to work in a senior role for the Ceylon Plywood Corporation in Gintota and later as government engineer for the southern coastal city of Galle.

The Sumanadasa building, named in his honour and built in 1973, remains in use and is one of the largest on the University of Moratuwa site. The university awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1980.