Sam Wijesinghe, the former Secretary General of Parliament and Sri Lanka’s first Ombudsman passed away earlier today. He was 93.

Born in Gatamanne in Southern Province in 1921, he attended Ananda College, Colombo and St Thomas’s College, Mount Lavinia. He attended the University of Ceylon and Law College and started his career as a Crown Counsel along with Neville Samarakoon, who later became a Chief Justice.

He was appointed secretary to the National State Assembly in 1972, and thereafter was appointed Secretary General of Parliament in 1978. He retired in the year 1981 and just six weeks later, was appointed as the first Parliamentary Commissioner (Ombudsmen). Wijesinghe served in this capacity for ten years and retired for the second time in the year 1991 at the age of 70 years.

He was the Chancellor of the Open University of Sri Lanka at the time of his death.