Cyril Ranatunga

Born and raised in the village of Bakmeedeniya, Kegalle, in a family of six children. Ranatunga attended St. Sylvester's College, Kandy; where he excelled at many sports, captained hockey and athletic teams. He was the head prefect and won the Gold Medal for the best all round student in 1949.

Joining the Ceylon Army in 1950 and received his officer training at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where his company commander was Patrick Anthony Porteous. After completing his training at Sandhurst, he was sent to Malaya of additional training at the British Army Jungle Warfare School. On his return he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Ceylon Light Infantry. Later he was transferred to the 1st Reconnaissance (Recce) Regiment at its formation as the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron in 1955 which grew into the Ceylon Armoured Corps. His squadron was deployed in 1956 to Ampara to subdue to the Gal Oya riots and thereafter to Trincomalee to control civil unrest. He underwent training at British Army Armoured Center, Bovington in 1957 as the regimental signals officer of the 1 Recce Regiment. In 1958, he served as a military observer in Lebanon United Nations Observation Group during the Lebanon crisis. Rejoining his regiment on his return to Ceylon.

In 1962, he attended the Staff College, Camberley, where he became friends with Major Yakubu Gowon, later General and Head of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria. On his return he was appointed as second-in-command of the 1 Recce Regiment. He was thereafter transferred to Army Headquarters as the general staff officer - operations before returning to the 1st Recce Regiment as its commanding officer.

He was appointed an executive director of the Airport and Aviation Services, Sri Lanka and later appointed Chairmen of Airport and Aviation Services. In this capacity he over looked the expansion of the Katunayake International Airport.

He was recalled from retirement in September 1985 and promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General, to serve as the General Officer Commanding, Joint Operations Command (JOC) which had been formed early that year under the command of General Tissa Weeratunga. During this time JOC under took planning of combined operations, procurement and expansion of the armed forces. Sri Lanka faced restrictions for weapon imports from the west as the case of the US government approving the sale of Cadillac Gage armored cars without its turret and gun; as well as the British governments refusal to supply spare parts for the Alvis Saladins and Ferret armoured cars. As a result the JOC received support from China and Pakistan. Chinese Type 56 assault rifles replaced self loading rifles as the primary service weapon and Chinese armored vehicles were imported. Israeli Dvora-class fast patrol boat were added to the navy and became its workhorse. His tenure as GOC-JOC saw large scale offensives against the LTTE such as the Vadamarachchi Operation which came close to meeting its objective when it was abandoned due to Indian intervention when military cargo planes escorted by fighter aircraft dropped humanitarian relief supplies in the Jaffna area on June 4 in Operation Poomalai. Indian forces landed in Sri Lanka on July 29 with the signing of the Indo-Sri-Lankan accord.

General Ranatunga is of the opinion that the Indo Lanka Peace Accord was forced down Sri Lanka’s throat at a time when the then President, J.R. Jayewardene wanted no such thing. While the ongoing military operation at the time had to be called off due to the Accord, Gen. Ranatunga is confident that, had the operation continued, LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran would have been captured and the LTTE defeated.[1] In July 1988, he retired from active service once again, stepping down as GOC, Joint Operations Command and was promoted to the rank of General. Ranatunga has stated that President Jayewardene has proposed to promote him to the rank of Field marshal.

On his way to the British Army Armoured Center in Bovington on board P&O liner Orontes, he met Myrtle Sumanasekera, they were engaged on their arrival in London and married soon after. They have two sons. His elder brother who also joined the army retired as a Colonel.[3]

General Ranatunga has received the Vishista Seva Vibhushanaya, Ceylon Armed Services Long Service Medal, Republic of Sri Lanka Armed Services Medal and the Vadamarachchi Operation Medal. He has received the United Nations Medal for the United Nations Observation Group in Lebanon.