C. W. W. Kannangara

Dr. Cristopher William Wijekoon Kannangara (Sinhala ආචාර්ය ක්‍රිස්ටෝෆර් විලියම් විජේකෝන් කන්නන්ගර; 13 October 1884 – 23 September 1969) was a Sri Lankan Lawyer and a politician, accredited often with being the Founder of the post independence island nation. Being a not so very distant relation of Sri Lanka's old ruling Imperial Royals, now fully informal (Kannangara, is Synonymous with the Indian and Mongolian (Mongolian Buddhist) titles of 'gurkannian, Gurkhan and Khannan'), CWW worked with other princely families (Disawani, such as Senanayake, also now fully informal) and Ceylon's traditional nobility, other impotent members of the self rule movement, as well as the British courtsi in the end to attain the goal of self rule. Rising up the ranks of Sri Lanka's movement for independence in the early part of the 20th century, he moved on to play a pivotal role defending leaders of the independence movement in court and achieving vital legal victories contributing vastly to the cause of independence as a lawyer and orator, soon achieving the Presidency of Ceylon National Congress, the forerunner to Sri Lanka's Parliament UNP . Later, he became the first Minister of Education in the State Council of Ceylon, and was instrumental in introducing extensive reforms to the country's education system that opened up education to children from all levels of society.