Family and Early Life
John Kotelawala was born into a wealthy family, his father John Kotelawala Snr. was an Inspector in the Ceylon Police Force and his mother was Alice Attygalle. Following accusations of murder John Kotelawala Snr committed suicide when his son was 11. Following this their family was ruined, Alice Attygalle who was originally a Buddhist converted to Christianity after this. Through careful management of their land loadings and plumbago mines she made her family prosperous. Young Kotelawala attended the prestigious Royal College, Colombo, but had to leave after he became involved in pro-independence activities during the riots in 1915.
Thereafter he embarked on a trip to Europe after leaving school, which was very dangerous because World War I was being fought there. He remained in Europe for five years, spending most of that time in England and France and attended Christ's College, Cambridge University to study agriculture.
Kotelawala was known as an aggressive and outspoken man who loved sports, horseback riding and cricket and, particularly as a young man, got into physical fights when he was insulted. He was fluent in Sinhala, English and French. After returning to Ceylon, he took up managing his family plantation estates and mines.
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