Sir

Sir

Sir 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...

 Muthu Coomaraswamy, FRGS  (January 23, 1833–1879) was a prominent colonial

British Ceylon

British Ceylon refers to British rule prior to 1948 of the island territory now known as Sri Lanka.-From the Dutch to the British:Before the beginning of the Dutch governance, the island of Ceylon was divided between the Portuguese Empire and the Kingdom of Kandy, who were in the midst of a war for...

 era legislator from Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

. He was the first native Asian and Sri Lankan to be knighted by Queen Victoria.

He was born to Gate Mudaliyar

Sri Lankan Mudaliyars

Mudali was a colonial title & office in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese colonials created the Mudaliyar class in the 17th century by enlisting natives of different castes form the coastal areas, who were most likely to serve the Portuguese masters with utmost loyalty. The Dutch continued the practice of...

 Arumugampillai Coomaraswamy

Arumugampillai Coomaraswamy

Gate Mudaliyar Arumugampillai Coomaraswamy was a Sri Lankan Tamil politician during the British Raj, and served on the Legislative Council from 1833 to 1846. He was an Indian from Tamil Nadu who migrated to Jaffna in the early 19th century. He was the father of Sir Muthu Coomaraswamy and...

 (1783–1836) of Point Pedro

Point Pedro

Point Pedro is the northernmost town of the island of Sri Lanka. The agriculturally active area around Point Pedro with fertile calcic red latosols is known for its cotton production. The eastern coast of Point Pedro is a 3-mile-broad beach with huge sand dunes up to 100 feet height, extending...

, who was of Sri Lankan Tamil ancestry. Educated at Colombo Academy (now Royal College, Colombo) from 1842 to 1851, where he won the Turnour Prize

Turnour Prize

The Turnour Prize is the oldest of the panel prizes at Royal College Colombo. It is one of the most prestigious prizes and honour awarded to a student of Royal College, the oldest public school in the country. Awarded annually to the best student in performance in academics. First awarded in 1846...

 in 1851 and was the Editor of the college magazine. He joined the Ceylon Civil Service

Ceylon Civil Service

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 was...

 as a cadet

Cadet

A cadet is a trainee to become an officer in the military, often a person who is a junior trainee. The term comes from the term "cadet" for younger sons of a noble family.- Military context :...

, went on to become a police magistrate

Magistrate

A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...

, assistant government agent

Government Agent (Sri Lanka)

A Government Agent or a District Secretary is a Sri Lankan civil servant of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service appointed by the central government to govern a certain district of the country. The GA is the administrative head of public services in the District. As Sri Lanka has 25 districts,...

 of Mullaitivu

Mullaitivu

Mullaitivu is a small town on the north-eastern coast of Sri Lanka. It is the capital of Mullaitivu District in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. A largely fishing settlement, the town in the early 20th century grew as an anchoring harbour of the small sailing vessels transporting goods between...

. He apprenticed under Richard Morgan

Richard Morgan (lawyer)

Sir Richard Morgan was a Ceylonese lawyer, who served as Chief Justice of Ceylon. He was the first Asian in the British Empire to receive a Knighthood and first Ceylonese to be a member of the Governor's Executive Council. Sir Richard was educated at the Colombo Academy.He was the crown advocate...

 and was called to the bar as Advocate of the supreme court in 1856. In 1861 he was elected as a member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon

Legislative Council of Ceylon

The Legislative Council of Ceylon was the legislative body of Ceylon established in 1833, along with the Executive Council of Ceylon, on the recommendations of the Colebrooke-Cameron Commission. It was the first form of representative government in the island...

. Resigning from CCS to left for England in May 1862, where he became a Barrister

Barrister

A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...

 after he was called to the bar at the Lincoln's Inn

Lincoln's Inn

The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...

 in 1863 and returned to Ceylon in 1865. In 1867 he became an advocate High Court of Madras. On August 11, 1874 he became the first Asian and Ceylonese to be Knighted. He was a member of the CMC

Colombo Municipal Council

The Colombo Municipal Council is the local council for Colombo, the largest city and financial centre in Sri Lanka. The council was formed in 1865 and first met in 1866. The municipal council is the oldest and the largest local government authority in Sri Lanka and, as of 2001, covers a resident...

 from 1868 to 1873.

He was married to Elizabeth Clay Beeby of Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 in 1877. He was the father of Indologist Ananda Coomaraswamy

Ananda Coomaraswamy

Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy was a Ceylonese philosopher and metaphysician, as well as a pioneering historian and philosopher of Indian art, particularly art history and symbolism, and an early interpreter of Indian culture to the West...

.

Works of Coomaraswamy

• Ariyachandra 1863
• Dathawansa 1874
• Translated Sutta Nipata into Tamil 1874 Tayumanavar
  Tayumanavar
  Tayumanavar , pronounced Tāyum-ānavar, is one of the spiritual giants of Tamil Nadu, India.-Spiritually Elevating songs:Tayumanavar was a respected scholar in both Sanskrit and Tamil and was a minister to the King in Trichinopoly in South India. His name hails from the name of the deity of the...
  
  
• Translated Ariyachandra Drama into English.