Tikiri Bandara Panabokke

Sir Tikiri Bandara Panabokke II (known as Sir Tikiri Bandara Panabokke Adigar ) (28 March 1883 – 2 September 1963) was a Ceylonese, prominent colonial era legislator, lawyer and diplomat. He was the first Minister of Health in the State Council and second representative of the Government of Ceylon to India. He was the last person appointed by the British Government of Ceylon to the post of Adigar.

Born Walala, Patha Dumbara on 28 March 1883 to Tikiri Bandara Panabokke Snr and his second wife Halangoda.

Panabokke Jnr received his primary education at the Walala Village School, and went to Trinity College, Kandy and Royal College Colombo, where he played cricket for his college team. His class mates at Royal College where A Padmanadan (son of Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam), B.F. de Silva and Stanley Obeysekara. For higher studies he entered Colombo Law College and passed out as a Proctor in 1905. He practised law at the Magistrate Courts of Gampola and the District Courts of Kandy.

In 1907 he was elected a member of the Local Board, Gampola and was re-elected every two years until he resigned his seat in 1924. In 1921 he was nominated as the Kandiyan member to a Legislative Council of Ceylon along with Meedeniya Adigar. He was appointed as Magistrate of Gampola for six months in 1928 and was appointed Crown Proctor.

With the introduction of universal adult franchise he was elected Member for Gampola to the Legislature. In 1931, he was elected to the State Council of Ceylon which had been created after reforms of the Legislature. There he was elected as the first Minister of Health to head the State Council Committee on Health and was a member of the first Board of Ministers. During his tenor as Minister, he built a new hospital in Gampola and played a key role in controlling the Malaria epidemic of 1933.

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