Date of Birth: 
About Henry De Mel
- Sir Henry Lawson De Mel, , Chevalier (21 January 1877 – 8 May 1936) was a Ceylonese industrialist, lawyer, philanthropist and politician.
- He was a member of the Legislative Council and founder of the H.L.
- De Mel & Co.Henry De Mel was born 21 January 1877, the son of Jacob De Mel (1839-1919) and Dona Helena née Ferdinando (1850-1906), a cousin of Sir Charles Henry de Soysa.
- He was one of fourteen children and was educated at S.
- Thomas' College and Royal College, Colombo. In 1898, he started his legal career with the law firm Peiris & De Mel and was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1904.
- He married Elsie Jayawickrame, the daughter of Mudaliyar S.
- H.
- Jayawickrame of Kurunegala.
- He later gave up his legal career to concentrate on his plantation and mining interests and was also an avid motorist.
- De Mel was the producer and exporter of the world's highest quality graphite and supplied Dixon Ticonderoga Company.In 1919, de Mel became the first Ceylonese CBE.
- In 1921 he was elected unopposed to the Legislative Council of Ceylon on behalf of the Low Country Products Association and at the same election his brother-in-law, Sir James Peiris, was also elected.
- In 1931 he was knighted for his services to the government of Ceylon.His sons were the Right Reverend Lakdasa De Mel (1902-1976), the first Bishop of Kurunegala and R.
- S.
- F.
- de Mel, a former Mayor of Colombo.
- His daughter, Irene, married Dr.
- Percival Cholmondeley Chalmers de Silva (1904-1987), a renowned pediatrician.On 8 May 1936 De Mel died of injuries sustained after being shot while trying to resolve a dispute between two workers on one of his vast coconut plantations.
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