Ceylon Civil Service
Encyclopedia
The Ceylon Civil Service, popularly known by its acronym CCS, originated as the elite civil service
of the Government of Ceylon under British
colonial rule in 1833 and carried on after independence, until May 1, 1963 when it was abolished and the much larger Ceylon Administrative Service (CAS) was created absorbing all executive management groups, was to be established with five grades. It was renamed following the declaration of the republic in 1972 as the Sri Lankan Administrative Service which is now the key administrative service of the Government.
At the early days the CCS was staffed by Europeans, members of the British Civil Service
and only later were Ceylonese admitted. Only six to eight (or in some years only one) out of a very large number of applicants were selected by open competitive examination from graduates with first class honors, between the ages of 22 and 24. The selected were classed as cadets and trained on public administration. They would receive job experience with rotation, serving in the districts, in public corporations, ministries and being part of ministerial delegations traveling abroad. This ensured that the top non-elected government positions were held by the best available candidates. This was very important since the appointments were permanent. The officers of the CCS therefore commanded a high level of respect, a situation which has continued into the early 21st century.
When the CCS was abolished its officers were taken in to the Ceylon Administrative Service, the successor to the Ceylon Civil Service.
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
of the Government of Ceylon under British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
colonial rule in 1833 and carried on after independence, until May 1, 1963 when it was abolished and the much larger Ceylon Administrative Service (CAS) was created absorbing all executive management groups, was to be established with five grades. It was renamed following the declaration of the republic in 1972 as the Sri Lankan Administrative Service which is now the key administrative service of the Government.
At the early days the CCS was staffed by Europeans, members of the British Civil Service
British Civil Service
Her Majesty's Home Civil Service, also known as the Home Civil Service, is the permanent bureaucracy of Crown employees that supports Her Majesty's Government - the government of the United Kingdom, composed of a Cabinet of ministers chosen by the prime minister, as well as the devolved...
and only later were Ceylonese admitted. Only six to eight (or in some years only one) out of a very large number of applicants were selected by open competitive examination from graduates with first class honors, between the ages of 22 and 24. The selected were classed as cadets and trained on public administration. They would receive job experience with rotation, serving in the districts, in public corporations, ministries and being part of ministerial delegations traveling abroad. This ensured that the top non-elected government positions were held by the best available candidates. This was very important since the appointments were permanent. The officers of the CCS therefore commanded a high level of respect, a situation which has continued into the early 21st century.
When the CCS was abolished its officers were taken in to the Ceylon Administrative Service, the successor to the Ceylon Civil Service.
CCS members who entered politics
- Cathiravelu Sittampalam - first Cabinet Minister of Posts and Telecommunications
- SirSirSir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
Arthur RanasingheArthur RanasingheSir Arthur Godwin Ranasinha, KBE, CCS was a Sri Lankan civil servant and statesmen. A Cabinet Minister and Senator, he had a long carrier in the Ceylon Civil Service and served as Secretary to the Treasury, Cabinet Secretary and Governor of the Central Bank of Ceylon. He had also served as Ceylon's...
- Cabinet Minister - SirSirSir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
Kanthiah VaithianathanKanthiah VaithianathanSir Kanthiah Vaithianathan KBE CCS was a Sri Lankan Tamil civil servant, politician, Member of the Senate and government minister.-Career:Vaithianathan he had a long carrier in the Ceylon Civil Service...
- Cabinet Minister of Housing and Social Services - DeshamanyaDeshamanyaDeshamanya is the second highest Sri Lankan national honour awarded by the Government of Sri Lanka as a civil honour.It is conventionally used as a title or prefix to the awardee's name....
Nissanka WijeyeratneNissanka WijeyeratneDeshamanya Nissanka Parakrama Wijeyeratne was a Sri Lankan politician, civil servant and diplomat. He was also the Diyawadana Nilame of the Temple of the Tooth from 1975 to 1985...
- Cabinet Minister of Education, Higher Education and Justice - Ronnie De MelRonnie De MelRonald Joseph Godfrey de Mel, CCS is a Sri Lankan politician, civil servant and currently Senior Adviser to President. He was Cabinet Minister of Finance from 1977 to 1988 and was instrumental in the establishment of the free market economy in Sri Lanka...
- Cabinet Minister of Finance - Sarath AmunugamaSarath Amunugama (politician)Sarath Leelananda Bandara Amunugama , MP, SLAS is a Sri Lankan politician and civil servant. He was the Cabinet Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning until April 2010...
- Cabinet Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning
Notable members of the CCS
- SirSirSir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
Ponnambalam ArunachalamPonnambalam ArunachalamSir Ponnambalam Arunachchalam, CCS was a Tamil political leader in Ceylon and a member of the Executive Council and the Legislative Council.-Early life:... - SirSirSir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
Richard AluwihareRichard AluwihareSir Richard Aluwihare, KCMG, CBE, CCS, JP was a Sri Lankan civil servant and diplomat. He was the first Ceylonese Inspector General of Police and Ceylon's High Commissioner in India.... - Hamilton Shirley AmerasingheHamilton Shirley AmerasingheHamilton Shirley Amerasinghe, CCS was a Sri Lankan diplomat and civil servant. He was the Ceylon's High Commissioner to India and concurrently Ambassador to both Nepal and Afghanistan and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance & Treasury and the Ministry of Health...
- Wilhelm WouterszWilhelm WouterszThelmuth Harris Wilhelm Woutersz was a prominent Sri Lankan diplomat and civil servant, who served as the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka. He had served as Sri Lankan Ambassador to People’s Republic of China, Italy & Yugoslavia.-Education:Wilhelm Woutersz was...
- Neville JanszNeville JanszNeville Jansz, CCS was a Sri Lankan civil servant and diplomat. He was the Ceylon's Ambassador to Australia and former Director General of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs and Defence....
- Rajendra CoomaraswamyRajendra CoomaraswamyRajendra "Raju" Coomaraswamy was a Sri Lankan civil servant and a UN administrator. He was the Assistant Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific. He had also served as the President of the Colombo Plan Council.The...
- C.A. CooreyC.A. CooreyDeshamanya Chandana Aelian Coorey, SLAS was a Sri Lankan civil servant. He was the former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance & Treasury.-Early life and education:...
- James Alfred CoreaJames Alfred CoreaJames Alfred Corea who was born in 1871 was a senior civil servant of the Colonial Government of Ceylon. He was appointed a Government Agent or Mohandiram by the Governor-General of Ceylon. A Government Agent is a Sri Lankan civil servant of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service appointed by the...
- Ananda W.P. Guruge
- M.J. Perera
- Gunasena de SoyzaGunasena de SoyzaGunasena de Soyza CMG OBE was High Commissioner for Ceylon in Britain from 1960 until his death. He had previously been the most senior civil servant in Ceylon.-Life:...
- G.V.P. SamarasingheG.V.P. SamarasingheG.V.P. Samarasinghe, CCS was a Sri Lankan civil servant. He was the former Permanent Secretary of Defence and Foreign Affairs and Cabinet Secretary. Educated at the prestigious Royal College Colombo, he is a graduate from the University College, Colombo....
- Bradman WeerakoonBradman WeerakoonDeshamanya Robin Bradman Weerakoon CCS is a retired senior bureaucrat of the Sri Lankan government. Bradman Weerakoon has the unique distinction of serving nine Sri Lankan heads of state in a career spanning across half a century....
- H.M.Z. Farouque
- E.G. Goonewardena
- M.W.F. Abeykoon
- Baku Mahadeva
- S.M.L. Marikkar
- M.D.D Pieris
- J.F.D. Liyanage
- K. Alvapillai
- Lord SomersetRichard Somerset, 2nd Baron RaglanRichard Henry FitzRoy Somerset, 2nd Baron Raglan was a British peer.The second son of the 1st Baron Raglan, Somerset was born in Paris and educated at Christ Church, Oxford. He came to Ceylon with Sir Colin Campbell as his Private Secretary and was subsequently taken into the Ceylon Civil Service...
- SirSirSir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
Philip Edmond Wodehouse - SirSirSir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
Walter Edward DavidsonWalter Edward DavidsonSir Walter Edward Davidson KCMG was a colonial Administrator and diplomat. He served periods as Governor of the Seychelles, Governor of Newfoundland and as Governor of New South Wales, in which he died in office.... - SirSirSir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
Franklin Charles GimsonFranklin Charles GimsonSir Franklin Charles Gimson, KCMG, KStJ, was a British colonial administrator, who served in Ceylon from 1914 to 1941, and later, the Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong and the Governor of Singapore.... - SirSirSir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
James Thorburn - SirSirSir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
Malcolm StevensonMalcolm StevensonSir Malcolm Stevenson KCMG was a British colonial administrator. He served as the Governor of Cyprus and later as the Governor of the Seychelles.-Biography:... - Leonard WoolfLeonard WoolfLeonard Sidney Woolf was an English political theorist, author, publisher and civil servant, and husband of author Virginia Woolf.-Early life:...
- Harry Charles Purvis BellHarry Charles Purvis BellHarry Charles Purvis Bell , more often known as HCP Bell, was a British civil servant, a commissioner in the Ceylon Civil Service. Appointed an official archaeologist, he carried out many excavations in Ceylon , for the Archaeological Survey, during an appointment running from 1890 to 1912After...
- Walter Terence StaceWalter Terence StaceWalter Terence Stace was a British civil servant, educator, philosopher and epistemologist, who wrote on Hegel, Mysticism, and Moral relativism...
- Robert Caesar ChildersRobert Caesar ChildersRobert Caesar Childers was a British Orientalist scholar, compiler of the first Pāli-English dictionary. Childers was the husband of Anna Barton of Ireland...
- James Devane