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Junius Richard Jayewardene
Sign in to saveAlso known as Junius Richard Jayawardene, J. R. Jayewardene, J R Jayewardene, JR Jayewardene
President of Sri Lanka from 1978 to 1989
Key facts
- Prime minister
- Ranasinghe Premadasa
- Preceded by
- William Gopallawa
- Succeeded by
- Ranasinghe Premadasa
- President
- William Gopallawa
- Born
- Junius Richard Jayewardene , ( 1906-09-17 ) 17 September 1906, Colombo , British Ceylon (now Sri Lanka )
- Died
- 1 November 1996 (1996-11-01) (aged 90), Colombo , Sri Lanka
- Party
- United National Party
- Spouse
- Elina Jayewardene ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1935 )
- Children
- Ravi Jayewardene (Son)
- Parents
- Eugene Wilfred Jayewardene (father) Agnes Helen Wijewardene (mother)
- Alma mater
- Colombo Law College , University College, Colombo , Royal College, Colombo
- Profession
- Advocate
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Sri Lanka
- Place of birth
- Colombo
- Place of death
- Colombo
- Occupation
- diplomat
- Position held
- Prime Minister of Sri Lanka
- Educated at
- University of London
- Political party
- United National Party
- Religion
- Buddhism
- Sport
- Cricket
- Image
- J. R. Jayawardene, President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka on June 20, 1984.jpg
Show 5 more facts
- date of birth
- 1906-09-17
- date of death
- 1996-11-01
- topic's main category
- Category:J. R. Jayewardene
- Commons category
- J. R. Jayewardene
- candidacy in election
- 1982 Sri Lankan presidential election
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~24 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Junius Richard Jayewardene (Sinhala: ජුනියස් රිචඩ් ජයවර්ධන; Tamil: ஜூனியஸ் ரிச்சட் ஜயவர்தனா; 17 September 1906 – 1 November 1996), commonly referred to by his initials JR, was a Sri Lankan lawyer, public official and statesman who served as prime minister of Sri Lanka from 1977 to 1978 and as the second president of Sri Lanka from 1978 to 1989. He was a leader of the nationalist movement in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and served in a variety of cabinet positions in the decades following independence. A longtime member of the United National Party, he led the party to a landslide victory in the 1977 parliamentary elections and served as prime minister for half a year before becoming the country's first executive president under an amended constitution.
Jayawardena remains a divisive figure in Sri Lankan history. While the open economic system he introduced in 1978 brought the country out of the economic turmoil it was facing as the result of the preceding government's closed economic policies, Jayawardene's social policies, including his response to the Black July riots of 1983, have been accused of heightening ethnic tensions in the country and contributing to the beginnings of the Sri Lankan civil war.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Junius Richard Jayewardene” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.