"Lion of Kotte" -E.W.Perera.


As a Ceylonese freedom fighter and politician greatest. As he was well-known in " Lion of Kotte" his adorable accomplishments regarding the freedom of  Ceylonese were highly and brightly emerged and indicated.Edward Walter Perera was born 12th December 1875 at Unawatuna , Galle. He was educated at Royal College and he was the first editor of the Royal College Magazine. He went to England for further studies and become a barrister in 1909. He was a member of the Legislative Council and later he represented  the Kaluthara distric.

His all missions for the freedom of Ceylonese were extremely successed . After the Sinhalese, Muslim riots in 1915 the British administrators punished sinhalese leaders unjustly. Then E.W.Perera took a secret document hidden under his shoe to present the British government. A petty incident in Gampola town caused clashes between Sinhalese and Muslims. Muslim traders did not allow any any processions of Buddhist. Throwing stones at a procession led to pandemonium and tha clashes spread throughout the country. The government declared Martial law and troops were brought from india. Sinhalese leaders were taken into custody and some of them like Edward Pedris were  killed. The government's conduct was condemned. A memorandum was prepared at a secret meeting and E.W. Perera was selected to taking it to the the British government. He undertook the task and he took the document hidden under his shoe. His effort was greatly appreciated and he was called as " The lion of Kotte". He passed awy on 16th February 1953  and at that time he was at the age of 79.