The Postmaster General of Sri Lanka is the appointed head of Sri Lanka Post, which is a government department. The current Postmaster General is Ranjith Ariyaratne.

History The first mail service in Ceylon, was in 1788, established by the Dutch East India Company between Holland and Batavia via the Cape of Good Hope and Dutch Ceylon. They established postal offices in the coastal trading centres of Colombo, Galle, Jaffna and Mannar. In 1795 the Dutch were expelled by the British and the Maritime Provinces were initially administered by the British East India Company. Two years later Ceylon became a Crown Colony. In 1798, a British officer, Captain Kennedy, was appointed as a competent postal authority.

In 1815, following the signing of the Kandyan Convention the British took control of the entire country. They re-organised the postal service and a permanent post office was established in Colombo in 1882. The first official Post Master General of Ceylon was Egbert Bletterman, who was the PMG for the whole island. In 1817, Lewis Sansoni succeeded Bletterman as the second Postmaster General. The third Postmaster General was Major George Stewart and during his period he was instrumental in extending the postal services to major towns in the country.

List of Postmasters General of Sri Lanka # Postmaster General Took office Left office Appointed by Notes 1 1815 1817 Robert Brownrigg first official Postmaster General 2 1817 1826 3 1826 1833 Edward Barnes 4 1833 1859 Robert Wilmot-Horton longest serving Postmaster General 5 1859 1867 Charles Justin MacCarthy 6 1867 1871 Hercules Robinson 7 1871 1896 8 1896 1899 Joseph West Ridgeway 9 1900 1906 10 1906 1913 Henry Arthur Blake 11 1913 1923 Reginald Edward Stubbs 12 1923 1928 William Henry Manning first non-European Postmaster General 13 1929 1933 Herbert Stanley 14 1933 1940 Reginald Edward Stubbs 15 1940 1947 Andrew Caldecott 15 1947 1951 Henry Monck-Mason Moore first Ceylonese Postmaster General 16 1951 1956 Viscount Soulbury second Ceylonese Postmaster General 17 1956 1961 18 1961 1962 19 1962 1964 20 1964 1968 21 1968 1968 22 1969 1970 23 1970 1973 24 1973 1980 25 1980 1984 26 1985 1986 27 1986 - 28 29 2008 2012 30 2012 10 July 2018 31 14 August 2018 Incumbent

See also Sri Lanka Post

External links & reference Sri Lanka Post

Specific