Deshamanya Robin Bradman Weerakoon CCS (born 20 October 1930) is a retired senior bureaucrat of the Sri Lankan government. Bradman Weerakoon has the unique distinction of serving nine Sri Lankan heads of state in a career spanning across half a century.
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He was born on October 20, 1930 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. His father, Edmund R. Weerakoon and his mother, a teacher at Princess of Wales College, were both devout Anglicans. He was named after the legendary Australian cricketer Don Bradman who sailed to Colombo on the day of his birth.
He studied in Holy Cross, Kalutara and later in St. Thomas's College, Guruthalawa. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts's Degree with second class honors (upper division) in economics and sociology from University of Ceylon and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study in University of Michigan for one year where he did his MA in Sociology.
Bradman joined the Ceylon Civil Service in 1954 as an understudy to the Government Agent of Anuradhapura, after which he spent a year in Jaffna where he learnt Tamil. After that he was transferred to Badulla but before he could assume duties, the order was withdrawn and he was sent to the Prime Minister's office.
In 1953, he was appointed as the assistant secretary to the prime minister at the time, Sir John Kotelawela. He later became his secretary and continued after Solomon Bandaranaike became the prime minister in 1956. After his death, he served Vijayananda Dahanayake and Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Thereafter he worked for Dudley Senanayake although some in the UNP felt uneasy about his presence. After Sirimavo won the election again in 1970, his secretarial career came to a halt because he was deemed untrustworthy having conveyed information to the UNP Dudley Senanayake during Mrs. Bandaranike's previous regime and he was transferred as Government Agent (Sri Lanka) to Batticaloa and later Ampara. In 1976, he retired from his post to join IPPF, an NGO working in the area of family planning as it's Secretary General.
In 1977, J.R. Jayawardene appointed him as the secretary to the ministry of plantation. In 1980, he joined then Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa's staff as secretary. Following the ethnic riots of 1983, he was appointed as commissioner-general of essential services with wide ranging administrative powers. In 1984 he re-joined IPPF as its secretary-general in London for one year, which entailed a great deal of travel from China to Africa to Mexico.
Following President Premadasa's assumption of office he was appointed presidential advisor on international affairs during a period when Indo-Lanka relations were at its lowest, following the expulsion of the IPKF.
After Premadasa's death, he remained as his successor Wijetunge's advisor and resigned in 1994 when Chandrika Kumaratunga became the president.
After Ranil Wickremesinghe became the prime minister in 2001, Bradman was offered his familiar position of secretary, which he reluctantly accepted. During this time, he was an influential figure in Wickremesinghe's administration, especially in the peace process between the government and the Tamil Tigers.
His memoirs, Rendering Unto Caesar, was published in 2004 after Wickremesinghe's government was defeated.
Weerakoon married Damayanthi Gunasekara, Esala is the only child and he is a Senior Career Diplomat, he is married to the daughter of another well known Sri Lankan civil servant Bernard Tilakaratna. Esala Weerakoon was a former Sri Lankan Ambassador to Norway.[1]