However, unlike the Portuguese and the Dutch, the British did give importance to the economic development of the country. The cultivation of coffee and tea plantations, the development of the road network, the construction of a railway network and the development of some of the strategic harbours stand as proof of their efforts.
In the year 1833, the Colebrook Commission introduced reforms to the constitution. Later in 1931, a new constitution was put in place based on the recommendations of the Donoughmore Commission. In accordance with the recommendations of the Soulbury Commission which sat in 1944, Ceylon was granted the status of a Dominion in the British Commonwealth in 1948.
Birth of the Volunteer Force of the Ceylon Army
During kingship in Ceylon, the kings had their Sinhala militia based on the system of land tenure called 'Rajakariya'. The Portuguese and the Dutch depended on their own occupying force and did not raise an indigenous standing army in the Island. The British, since 1802 supplemented their own forces in the island with several battalions of the Ceylon Regiment comprising of non-indigenous personnel.
In pursuance of a petition submitted to the Governor of the island by the residents of Matale seeking assent to form a volunteer corps, Ordinance Number 3 of 1861 was enacted authorizing same. However, between the times the petition was made and Royal assent was received, The Matale Association, alleging government indifference and lack of enthusiasm towards their request, lost interest in volunteering and a volunteer corps was not raised. Interest was however revived in 1881 when a representative group of all nationalities headed by Mr. WJN Boake, the Police Magistrate of Colombo, petitioned the government for permission to raise a volunteer corps under the provisions of Ordinance No. 3 of 1861 following which assent to raise a volunteer corps was promulgated by the Lieutenant Governor of the island in a proclamation dated 1st April 1881.
Thus, a volunteer corps designated ‘The Ceylon Volunteers’ was raised on 1st April 1881, which saw the beginning of volunteering in Ceylon. A few months after rising, it was renamed as 'The Ceylon Light Infantry Volunteers' and received royal patronage when the Prince of Wales consented to be its Honorary Colonel.
Though the Corps was designated as the Ceylon Light Infantry, it had within it groups of other arms and services. However, commencing form 1888, these groups broke away to form separate entities of their own such as the artillery, medical, engineers, mounted regiment etc. In 1910, under the provision of the Ceylon Defence Force Ordinance No. 8 of 1910, all volunteer units were integrated as the Ceylon Defence Force and came under it for administration, training and logistics. The Ceylon Defence Force had a Commandant as its head. This status-quo existed until Ceylon gained independence in 1948 and the present Ceylon Army was raised in 1949.
In addition to the Royal Volunteer Force the British established and maintained a Royal Naval and Air Force.
Early wartime experiences of the Ceylon Volunteer Force
In 1901, a Mounted Infantry Company of the Ceylon Light Infantry sailed for South Africa to fight alongside the British in the Boer War. This was followed by a Detachment of the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps. Both Detachments acquitted themselves well to the extent that Lord Kitchener the Commander - in - Chief in South Africa said, "The Ceylon contingent did very good work in South Africa. I only wish we had more of them". The Ceylon Mounted Infantry and the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps were each presented with a Banner in appreciation of their services in South Africa by the British sovereign. The actual presentation was made to the two Units by the Duke of Cornwall, in Kandy.
During World War I, the offer of a contingent from Ceylon was turned down by the Imperial authorities; and the Ceylon Defence Force Units were deployed in local defence duties. However certain members of the Ceylon Defence Force left for England, on their own accord and at their own expense and joined various British Army Units - of them Private Jacotine of the Coldstream was mentioned in Dispatches and Private DB Seneviratne was awarded the Military Medal. In 1922, the Ceylon Light Infantry Volunteers were presented with the British sovereign's Colour and the Regimental Colour for its services to the Country and for taking over the functions of a Regular Indian Battalion performing duties in the Island.
During World War II, with successful Japanese offensives in the East and the fall of Singapore, threats of invasion were looming large over Ceylon. All Ceylon Defence Force units then expanded rapidly, and some new units were raised into the Ceylon Defence Force over the traditional ones that were organic to it from 1910. The only infantry battalion, the Ceylon Light Infantry, expanded into a regiment of five battalions and consequently, the onus of local defence of the island, on land, had to be borne by units of the Ceylon Defence Force. Over these responsibilities, the defence of Cocos (Keeling) Islands and the Seychelles had to be serviced by the Ceylon Defence Force. Hence, apart from routine guard duties, the defence of the South East Asia (SEAC) Headquarters at Kandy and the aerial bombing of Colombo and Trincomalee by the Japanese were new experiences for the Ceylon Defence Force.
Birth of the Army Regular Force and Transition
With the end of World War II, in 1945 the Ceylon Defence Force started to reorganize itself to peacetime strengths, and on the threshold of independence the reorganized Ceylon Defence Force stood as under,
1st Anti-Air craft/Coast Artillery Regiment
1st Works Service Unit Ceylon Engineers
1st Squadron Ceylon Army Signals
1st Battalion Ceylon Light Infantry
The Ceylon Army Medical Corps
1st Ceylon Army Service Corps
1st Ceylon Army Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Corps
The Ceylon Army Police
The Ceylon Army Recruit Training Depot
The Army Act No. 17 of 1949 was enacted, on 10th October 1949 and provided that the Ceylon Army comprised a Regular Force, a Regular Reserve, a Volunteer Force and a Volunteer Reserve.
"In order to ensure cohesion within Corps of the Army, both regular and volunteer units were required to share nomenclature, dress and other concomitants of regimental life. In this way, members of regular units were able to succeed to traditions of the corps which their counterpart in the volunteer units had enjoyed from the time of their inception many decades ago" (A M Muttukumaru: The Military History of Ceylon:- an outline Randhara Books (Pvt) Ltd 1987. P.150)
The Army Act No. 17 of 1949 also repealed the Ceylon Defence Force Ordinance No. 8 of 1910. Thus, the headquarters of Ceylon Defence Force was disbanded and the following units of the reorganized Ceylon Defence Force transited into the Volunteer Force of the fledgling Ceylon Army.
2nd (Volunteer) Anti-Aircraft Coast Artillery Regiment
2nd (Volunteer) Ceylon Army Signal Corps
2nd (Volunteer) Ceylon Army Engineers
2nd (Volunteer) Ceylon Light Infantry
2nd (Volunteer) Ceylon Army Service Corps
2nd (Volunteer) Ceylon Army Medical Corps
The following were the first Units that were raised into the Regular Force of the Ceylon Army in 1949
The 1st Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment Ceylon Artillery
1st Field Squadron Ceylon Engineers
Work Services Ceylon Engineers
