Charles Matthew Fernando

Charles Matthew Fernando (18669 June 1909) was a Ceylonese lawyer and scholar. He was the first Ceylonese Crown Counsel.

Early life and education Charles Matthew Fernando was born in 1866 in Colombo, the son of Andrew Fernando Jr. and the grandson of Andrew Fernando Sr., the Mudaliyer of Colombo. He was the brother of Sir Marcus Fernando. He served as the Senior Crown Counsel and Assistant Attorney General of Ceylon. He was one of the founders of the Ceylon Law Students Union. C. M. Fernando's writings are some of the oldest written accounts on the subject of Ceylonese dance music forms such as baila.

Family Fernando married Jane Maria Caroline, third daughter of Charles Henry de Soysa and Lady de Soysa in 1901. They had a daughter and a son, His wife and daughter Christobel, were notably the only two among the urbanised elite to be in saree for their portrait in the Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon by Arnold Wright.