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Kanatte Cemetery

1866 establishments in CeylonCemeteries in Sri LankaCommonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in Sri LankaEngvarB from June 2020Tourist attractions in Colombo
Captain Henry Pedris Tomb at Borella Cemetery
Captain Henry Pedris Tomb at Borella Cemetery

Kanatte Cemetery, also known locally as Borella Cemetery, is Colombo's main burial ground and crematorium. It is located at the intersection of Elvitigala Mawatha (Narahenpita Road), Bauddhaloka Mawatha (Bullers Road) and D. S. Senanayake Mawatha (Baseline Road). The 19.3 ha (48 acres) cemetery is owned and operated by the Colombo Municipal Council and contains a Commonwealth War Graves Plot with a number of additional war graves dispersed around the site. The war graves include those of a German soldier, a German merchant seaman, a German interned civilian and an Austrian nursing sister. There are over 60 World War I Commonwealth servicemen and nearly 300 World War II Commonwealth servicemen buried here. The cemetery was established in 1866 and is the main place of burial for all religions and nationalities, with separate sections for Hindus, Buddhists, Shintos, Roman Catholics, Anglicans and non-denominational Christians. The first burial was in May 1866, prior to this most British burials occurred at the Galle Face Burial Grounds, an area near the current Presidential Secretariat building. In the 1920s, those graves were exhumed and the remains were interred at Kanatte.The cemetery's most famous Westerner interred at the cemetery is British-born science fiction writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008).

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Kanatte Cemetery (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Kanatte Cemetery
Baseline Road, Colombo Narahenpita

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Wikipedia: Kanatte CemeteryContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 6.90794 ° E 79.87748 °
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Address

Baseline Road

Baseline Road
00800 Colombo, Narahenpita
Western Province, Sri Lanka
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Captain Henry Pedris Tomb at Borella Cemetery
Captain Henry Pedris Tomb at Borella Cemetery
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Westminster House

Westminster House, the official residence in Colombo for the British High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, is situated in Cinnamon Gardens, a suburb of Colombo. In 1948 Ceylon became a dominion within the commonwealth and the British established a high commission that year. The High Commissioner was originally domiciled in a government bungalow, Four Furlongs, on Bauddhaloka Mawatha (formerly Bullers Road) in Cinnamon Gardens. In March 1950 that the Ceylonese government provided a 0.5 ha (1.2 acres) site for the High Commissioner's new residence, on a 99-year lease, on Wijerama Mawatha (formerly MacCarthy Road), in Cinnamon Gardens, however the lease was not formally signed until March 1952.The building, a colonial style bungalow, with large gardens, was designed by the Ministry of Works in New Delhi, for an estimated cost of £40,000. Works on the residence commenced in July 1952 and it was completed in March 1954. Most of the furniture for the ground floor was designed, in a contemporary style, by Dennis Lennon. The residence was named after the Palace of Westminster. The final cost was £53,795, plus £12,000 for furnishings and equipment.The offices of the High Commission occupied a six-storey office building, designed by Charles Kidby of the Ministry of Works, on a 1.6 ha (4.0 acres) site, on Galle Road in Colpetty. Construction of the office building commenced in April 1963, with the laying of a foundation stone by Sir Michael Walker, and opened in January 1966. In the late 1990s the British Government decided that the existing office of the High Commission was no longer fit for purpose and acquired a 0.8 ha (2.0 acres) site on Bauddhaloka Mawatha, from the Meteorological Department, adjacent to Westminster House. In 2001 the Scottish architectural practice, Richard Murphy Associates, in collaboration with local architect, Milroy Perera, was commissioned to design the new offices. The single-storey building has a central spine traversing the middle of the site with four wings leading off it on either side in a staggered arrangement, creating a series of small intimate courtyards, reflecting aspects of traditional Sri Lankan architecture. The building was formally opened in May 2008.On 14 November 2013, King Charles celebrated his 65th birthday at Westminster House, whilst he was attending the 23rd Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka as the Prince of Wales.