Premil Ratnayake

Premil Ratnayake, (Sinhala: ප්‍රෙමිල් රත්නායක; 3 April 1933 – 10 April 2013), was a Sri Lankan journalist, author, writer, diplomat, and former First Secretary (Press and Information). Ratnayake was a prominent journalist, having worked at The Lake House, The Daily News,

Early life Ratnayake Mudianselage Premil Ratnayake was born on 3 April 1933, in Hatton, Ceylon. He was the fourth son of Mudianselage Marshal Ratnayake and Rossyln Paranavitanage. He had four siblings; Willy, Wimala, Edwin (former Commissioner of Labour Ratnayake was an exceptionally talented student, athlete, boxer and cadet at Ananda College. working as a journalist for the Ceylon Daily News. Premil worked alongside the likes of Mervyn de Silva D. B. Dhanapala, Ratnayake, while being a skilled writer, could also speak Sinhalese, Tamil and Hindi.

Apollo 12 crew tour In March 1970, Premil covered the historic event of the arrival of the Apollo 12 mission crew in Ceylon, for the Ceylon Daily News, part of a 20-nation goodwill tour, to celebrate the successful voyage to and back from the Moon. The Apollo 12 was the second spaceflight to land men on the Moon, it consisted of Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr., Richard F. Gordon Jr., and Alan L. Bean. The crew was welcomed by the then Minister of State, J. R. Jayewardene, US Ambassador Andrew Corry, and the Mayor of Colombo, Vincent Perera.

Government positions Later in his career, Ratnayake was invited by Lalith Athulathmudali to join the Ministry of Trade and Shipping, as the Press Secretary, in order to handle publicity for the Ministry. Since he was a writer and journalist belonging to the old world order, he didn't fancy writing on computers, and managed to get himself the only typewriter left at the Lake House

The Third Person Note (1997) His final novel, The Third Person Note was presented on 12 November 1997, at an event held at the National Library Services Board Auditorium, it was attended by Gamini Weerakoon, editor of The Island, and Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne, president of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement.