Awards Deshamanya | ||
Deshamanya Neville T. D. Kanakeratne is a Sri Lankan lawyer, diplomat and scholar, who was the former Governor of the Southern Province. He was the Sri Lankan Ambassador to the United States and High Commissioner to India.
Educated at Southlands College Galle and at the Royal College, Colombo, where he was the Head Prefect in 1941, Kanakaretne pursued his higher studies at the University of Ceylon graduating with a B.A. in history. After studying law at the Colombo Law College he became an advocate and was known as a scholar in history.
Kanakeratne went on to serve the government of Ceylon in a legal advisory capacity. Holding appointment such as first secretary and legal adviser to Ceylon's delegation to the UN and thereafter he severed as the minister in the Ceylon's High Commission in London.
Thereafter he served worked in the UN in several capacities that included Vice President of the United Nations Trusteeship Council and legal adviser to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Kanakeratne went on to become one of Ceylon's prominent diplomats severing as its Ambassador to the United States and High Commissioner to India and was the head of the committee for the establishment of the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies. He was awarded the title of Deshamanya from the Government of Sri Lanka.