Reflections of Early Military History of Ceylon 1881-1971: A must read

Saturday, 26 September 2026 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reflections of Early Military History of Ceylon 1881-1971 is a book that explores the origins of the Ceylon volunteers in 1881 to the British Ceylon contingent to fight in the Boer war in 1902, with special emphasis on the imperial Japanese navy air raid over Ceylon in April 1942 and its aftermath. It also includes initial information of the armed forces of independent Ceylon from 1949 to 1971.

The book was compiled by GW SLA Brigadier (Retd.) Hiran Halangode, SLAF Group Captain (Retd.) Kumar Kirinde, Author and Military Historian Laksiri M. H. Mendis and SLII SLA Major (Retd.) Anton Edema.

The book is a compilation of articles of major historical engagements of British Ceylonese in various wars in the past from the Boer War right up to World War II.

Most of the articles and compilations were taken from the world wide web of the internet and web based articles while more details are documented through personal research by the compilation team.

It documents how the then Ceylon Army, Royal Ceylon Navy and the Royal Ceylon Air Force came into being after the end of World War II and how they developed gradually to the present Sri Lanka Army, Sri Lanka Navy and Sri Lanka Air Force.

Many Ceylonese were honoured by the British when many distinguished officers and men of British-Ceylon heritage were awarded gallantry medals of that colonial period which are also well documented in this book.

Price - Rs. 2500.00 for 323 printed pages of written records, illustrations and rare photographs.

Contact persons for purchase of books are Group Captain Kumar Kirinde email: [email protected]/ telephone 071 8580079 or Laksiri Mendis email: [email protected]/telephone no: 077 3847157.