The Most Famous
MILITARY PERSONNELS from Sri Lanka
This page contains a list of the greatest Sri Lankan Military Personnels. The pantheon dataset contains 2,058 Military Personnels, 3 of which were born in Sri Lanka. This makes Sri Lanka the birth place of the 61st most number of Military Personnels behind Indonesia, and Canada.
Top 4
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Sri Lankan Military Personnels of all time. This list of famous Sri Lankan Military Personnels is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Jack Churchill (1906 - 1996)
With an HPI of 55.55, Jack Churchill is the most famous Sri Lankan Military Personnel. His biography has been translated into 25 different languages on wikipedia.
John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill, (16 September 1906 – 8 March 1996) was a British Army officer. Nicknamed "Fighting Jack Churchill" and "Mad Jack", he fought in the Second World War with a longbow, a basket-hilted Scottish broadsword, and a set of bagpipes.
2. John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841 - 1920)
With an HPI of 50.56, John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher is the 2nd most famous Sri Lankan Military Personnel. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
Admiral of the Fleet John Arbuthnot Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher, (25 January 1841 – 10 July 1920), commonly known as Jacky or Jackie Fisher, was a British Admiral of the Fleet. With more than sixty years in the Royal Navy, his efforts to reform the service helped to usher in an era of modernisation which saw the supersession of wooden sailing ships armed with muzzle-loading cannon by steel-hulled battlecruisers, submarines and the first aircraft carriers. Fisher has a reputation as an innovator, strategist and developer of the navy rather than as a seagoing admiral involved in major battles, although in his career he experienced all these things. When appointed First Sea Lord in 1904 he removed 150 ships then on active service which were no longer useful and set about constructing modern replacements, developing a modern fleet prepared to meet Germany during the First World War. Fisher saw the need to improve the range, accuracy and rate-of-fire of naval gunnery, and became an early proponent of the use of the torpedo, which he believed would supersede big guns for use against ships. As Controller, he introduced torpedo-boat destroyers as a class of ship intended for defence against attack from torpedo boats or from submarines. As First Sea Lord he drove the construction of HMS Dreadnought, the first all-big-gun battleship, but he also believed that submarines would become increasingly important and urged their development. He became involved with the introduction of turbine engines to replace reciprocating engines, and with the introduction of oil fuelling to replace coal. He introduced daily baked bread on board ships, whereas when he entered the service it was customary to eat hard biscuits, frequently infested by biscuit beetles. He first officially retired from the Admiralty in 1910 on his 69th birthday, but became First Sea Lord again in November 1914. He resigned seven months later in frustration over Churchill's Gallipoli campaign, and then served as chairman of the Government's Board of Invention and Research until the end of the war.
3. Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala (1810 - 1890)
With an HPI of 42.13, Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala is the 3rd most famous Sri Lankan Military Personnel. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Field Marshal Robert Cornelis Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala (6 December 1810 – 14 January 1890) was a British Indian Army officer. He fought in the First Anglo-Sikh War and the Second Anglo-Sikh War before seeing action as chief engineer during the second relief of Lucknow in March 1858 during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. He also served in the Second Opium War as commander of the 2nd division of the expeditionary force which took part in the Battle of Taku Forts, the surrender of Peking's Anting Gate and the entry to Peking in 1860. He subsequently led the punitive expedition to Abyssinia in July 1867, defeating the Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia with minimal loss of life among his own forces and rescuing the hostages of Tewodros.
4. Ajantha Mendis (b. 1985)
With an HPI of 18.71, Ajantha Mendis is the 4th most famous Sri Lankan Military Personnel. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Balapuwaduge Ajantha Winslow Mendis (Sinhala: අජන්ත මෙන්ඩිස්; born 11 March 1985) better known as Ajantha Mendis is a Sri Lankan former international cricketer who played for Sri Lankan national cricket team in all three formats. He is also known as the "mystery spinner" due to the unusual bowling action variations. In August 2019, he retired from all forms of cricket. Mendis was a member of the Sri Lankan team that won the 2014 ICC World Twenty20. Mendis made his One Day International debut against the West Indies at Port of Spain in 2008 and took 3 for 39. He also played for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League. He holds the record for the fastest 50 wickets in ODIs with 19 matches. His first Test Match was against India at Colombo on 23 July 2008 in which he returned match figures of 8–132, thereby becoming the first Sri Lankan bowler to get an eight-wicket haul on Test debut. Mendis won the Emerging Player of the Year award at the ICC Awards ceremony held in Dubai in September 2008. Until February 2017, he was the only bowler to have taken six wickets in a Twenty20 International, and he has achieved the feat twice, claiming the world record figures of 6 wickets for 8 runs for Sri Lanka against Zimbabwe on 18 September 2012 which was later broken by Deepak Chahar in 2019 in a T20I against Bangladesh. On 26 October 2012, Ajantha Mendis received the Sri Lankan order of Bantu, the highest civilian honour in Sri Lanka.
People
Pantheon has 4 people classified as Sri Lankan military personnels born between 1810 and 1985. Of these 4, 1 (25.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Sri Lankan military personnels include Ajantha Mendis. The most famous deceased Sri Lankan military personnels include Jack Churchill, John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher, and Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala. As of April 2024, 1 new Sri Lankan military personnels have been added to Pantheon including Ajantha Mendis.
Living Sri Lankan Military Personnels
Go to all RankingsDeceased Sri Lankan Military Personnels
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Jack Churchill
1906 - 1996
HPI: 55.55
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher
1841 - 1920
HPI: 50.56
Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala
1810 - 1890
HPI: 42.13
Newly Added Sri Lankan Military Personnels (2024)
Go to all RankingsOverlapping Lives
Which Military Personnels were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 3 most globally memorable Military Personnels since 1700.
