Osmund de Silva

Osmund De Silva was a former Ceylonese Inspector-General of Police.

He was the son of Mudliyar Thomas de Silva, founder principal of Dharmasoka College. Educated at S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia and University College, Colombo, De Silva joined the Ceylon Police Force as an Assistant Superintendent of Police, where he served in the Kegalle District before being transferred to the Police Training Academy. In 1941 he married Ena Aluvihare, the teenage daughter of Sir Richard Aluwihare, who was the serving Inspector General of Police at the time.

In 1955 de Silva was the first Ceylonese to be appointed as Inspector General of Police from within the force and the first Buddhist Inspector General. De Silva was responsible for introducing community policing to the country, a vision that was not shared by his successors. In 1959 the Prime Minister of Ceylon, S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike requested that the police intervene against trade union action occurring at Colombo Harbour. De Silva declined to do the Prime Minister’s bidding on the basis that he believed the request was not lawful. On 24 April 1959, de Silva was compulsorily retired from the police force and M. W. F. Abeyakoon, a civil servant, was appointed in his place.