The founder Chairman of the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited, (Lake House) Don Richard Wijewardene's birth anniversary falls on February 23.
Lake House is the first Sri Lankan newspaper group that fought to regain independence for the country.
D.R. Wijewardene was born on February 23, 1886 as the third male child among seven sons and two daughters to Muhandiram Tudugalage Don Philip Wijewardene, timber merchant of Sedavatta and Helena Weerasinghe. He received his primary education at Sedavatta school and completed his secondary education at S.Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia. He then went to University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom for higher education.
Returning to Ceylon, he established the Ceylon Daily News, an English daily, and bought its primary competition, the Ceylon Independent.
Together with his brother D.C. Wijewardene, he took over the Sinhala language daily Dinamina. This was followed by the publication of a Tamil language daily. The publishing company he established was named after its headquarters along the banks of the Beira Lake,as Lake House Group, with its newspaper arm Associated Newspapers of Ceylon (Ltd).
D.R. Wijewardene married Alice Meedeniya in 1912 and had two sons and three daughters. He passed away on June 13, 1950.