The Corea family of Chilaw is a renowned family whose descendants were grand characters who rendered a yeoman service to the country. Their lineage can be traced to one of the greatest warriors during the period of the Kotte Kingdom. He was none other than Dominicus Corea also known as Domingos Corea or Edirille Rala.
He and his younger brother Simon Corea grew up in the Colombo Fort in their childhood and so did Konappu Bandara, who later became the king of Kandy (from 1590 to 1604) as Vimaladharmasuriya. Dominicus Corea was the son of Don Jeronimo Corea and Anna Corea.
Don Jeronimo Corea was born in Colombo in 1565 when the Portuguese had colonised Ceylon. In consequence of that influence, they had also become converted Catholics as was often the case with many people who lived in the West coastal region of Ceylon ruled by the Portuguese.
Don Jeronimo Corea also known as Mudaliyar Wickramasinha was loyal and partial to King Mayadunne of Sitawaka and, therefore, was appointed as Commander-in-Chief of King Mayadunne’s Army. But later, he was executed by King Mayadunne’s son king Rajasinghe 1 (Tikiri Kumara) also known as the lion of Sitawaka.
Dominicus Corea was crowned king of Kotte and Sitawaka in 1596 by the king of Kandy and his childhood friend Vimaladharmasuriya. His queen was Princess Subadra Devi, daughter of
King Veediya Bandara. He was a great warrior who excelled in arms and fought the Portuguese fearlessly. Therefore, he was dreaded as being one of the most powerful swordsmen. It is said that at last, he was killed by the Portuguese and his body was also cut into pieces, and they were hung in several places in Kotte.
Patriots
Most of the other members of the Corea family have been patriots such as Jeronimo Corea, Dominicus Corea and Simon Corea thought of as the oldest known members of the Chilaw Corea lineage. Charles Edward Bandaranayake Corea, Charles Edgar Corea, Dr. James Alfred Ernest Corea, Victor Corea, Agnes Corea, Charles Alfred Ernest Corea, Shirley Corea, Ivan Corea, G.C.S. Corea, Harindra Corea, Vernon Corea were notables of the Corea family serving the country in diverse fields during the Dutch and the British rule.
Charles Edward Bandaranayake Corea was the son of Simon Corea and Cornelia Dias Bandaranayake. He had five children. They were Charles Edgar Corea, James Alfred Ernest Corea, Victor Corea, Agnes Corea and Evangeline Henrietta Corea.
Charles Edgar Corea (1866-1946) and Victor Corea (1871-1962) were both advocates of the Supreme Court and members of the Legislative Council. Also, they were founding members of the Ceylon National Congress and the Chilaw Association. C.E. Corea was also elected President of the Ceylon National Congress in 1924. Both of them were active members of the Independence Movement of Ceylon too.
Victor Corea was one of the most prominent members of the illustrious, well-to-do Corea family based in Chilaw and often held the view that the youth of the country must be groomed to be the cream of the nation and did a lot to empower them. During the Sinhala-Muslim riots in 1915, he and his brother C.E. Corea protected the Muslims in Chilaw. It is also known that he was instrumental in establishing Buddhist temples and pirivenas in Chilaw. He was also elected President of the Ceylon Labour Union in 1920 at its very inception.
His intervention in the cancellation of the iniquitous Poll Tax imposed by the British Government was of paramount importance and brought him much reputation with the people also rallying round him showing a marked antipathy to it. It was not an easy course of action; he had to languish in jail for a month toiling and moiling in the scorching sun before the British Government, fearing an islandwide mass protest, did away with the Poll Tax, which required all males above 21 years to pay the Government Rs. 2.
Palatial residence
Victor Corea made every possible strenuous exertion to promote nationalism and discourage the taste for what was foreign as was done by Mahatma Gandhi in India. At the invitation of the two brothers, C.E. Corea and Victor Corea, Mahatma Gandhi arrived in Chilaw in 1927 to be their guest at ‘Sigiriya’ a stately and exquisitely designed mansion that belonged to the Coreas. This palatial residence exists to this day but is crumbling due to negligence and disrepair. It is now an archaeologically significant structure that needs preserving.
Among the other prominent members of the Coreas were G.C.S. Corea, Shirley Corea and Harindra Corea. G.C.S. Corea became the President of the United Nations Security Council and held that much revered position from May 1960 to June 1960. Now there is a school named after him at Karawitagara close to Chilaw.
Shirley Corea became the Speaker of Parliament of Ceylon and is fondly remembered even today with much admiration. The main public ground close to the city of Chilaw has been named after him. Harindra Corea became a prominent political figure in the country and was elected to Parliament representing the Chilaw electorate and later held several ministerial portfolios such as the Deputy Minister of Public Administration ( 1980-1989), the Minister of State for Ports and Telecommunication (1989- 1994) and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (2000-2001).
The Corea family of Chilaw was not engaged in liquor trade unlike many affluent families of the country but made their money on plantation ventures. They owned many coconut estates in and around Chilaw, known even today as Corea estates. It is no exaggeration to say that the Corea Family of Chilaw was an exemplary family, many members of which worked with perseverance both in the independence struggle and in the nation-building process.
