Anton Muttukumaru

Major General Anton Muttukumaru, OBE, ED, ADC (6 July 1908 – 2001) was the first native Ceylonese to serve as the Commander of the Ceylon Army (now Sri Lanka Army), a post he held from 1955 to 1959. He also served as Ceylon's High Commissioner to Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Ambassador to Egypt.

Early life and education Born to Mary Mount Carmel Alles, a Colombo Chetty, and Dr. Philip Marian Muttukumaru, a Jaffna Tamil, he and his siblings were brought up by their mother after the early death of their father. Educated at home by an English governess and then at St. Joseph's College, Colombo, he then entered Ceylon University College and in 1928, he left for Jesus College, Oxford to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. After completing his degree, he read for the Bar and was called by Gray's Inn to become a barrister. He returned to Ceylon, took his oaths as an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Ceylon and started his legal practice.

Military career Ceylon Defence Force After returning from England, in 1934 he joined the Ceylon Defence Force, a part-time reserve force raised by the British to defend the island. Muttukumaru was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Ceylon Light Infantry (CLI) on 11 September 1934. In 1939 he was mobilised with the rest of the CDF at the outset of World War II. During this time, he would go on to command the CLI Guard at the South East Asia Command headquarters in Kandy and was promoted captain on 29 November 1940 and major in 1942. On 1 November 1943 he was promoted lieutenant colonel and appointed commanding officer, 2nd Battalion CLI, in which appointment he continued to serve until the general demobilisation which took place after the end of the war in January 1947. He led Ceylon's contingent in the London victory parade in 1946.

Later years After leaving the army, Muttukumaru was appointed Ceylon's High Commissioner to Pakistan (with concurrent responsibility for Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq) in 1959, and High Commissioner to Australia and New Zealand from 1963 to 1966. Later in 1966, Muttukumaru became Ambassador to Egypt, concurrently he was Ambassador to Jordan, the Sudan and Yugoslavia. He permanently retired in 1969.

Honors and decorations During his service in the Ceylon Defence Force, he received the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal in 1935, appointed an officer of the Order of the British Empire (Military Division) in the 1946 Birthday Honours and awarded the Efficiency Decoration. For wartime service, he had earned the Defence Medal and the War Medal 1939–1945 in 1945; for service in the Ceylon Army, he received the Ceylon Armed Services Inauguration Medal in 1955.

In 1996, the General Sir John Kotelawela Defence Academy awarded an 'Honourable Doctor of Letters' to him for his contributions to the buildup of the Army and for being the first to publish a short history of the Army, "The Military History of Ceylon – An Outline" . General Muttukumaru died in Australia in 2001 at the age of 93.

Family Muttukumaru married Margaret Vasanthi Ratnarajah in 1944. They had three sons: Anton Vasantha Muttukumaru, Philip Rajkantha Muttukumaru and Christopher Peter Jayantha Muttukumaru, CB, DL.