Tyronne Fernando dead

COLOMBO: Tyronne Fernando, a renowned politician, a former Foreign Minister and the former Governor of the North-East Province passed away yesterday at a private hospital in Colombo.

Fernando who hails an descendant of national hero Puran Appu was acting as a Presidential Advisor at the time of his demise.

Born on August 8, 1941, Fernando entered active politics in 1973 after joining the United National Party (UNP) and elected to Parliament in 1977 representing the Moratuwa seat after contesting the elections from the UNP.

He was a product of Royal College, Colombo and earned his MA in Political Science at Oxford University.

He was a Barrister-at-Law at Gray's Inn. He is also a diploma holder in Journalism from the London School of Journalism.

An Attorney-at-Law and a President's Counsel by profession he worked as a criminal lawyer for 10 years and also as a Crown Counsel during that 10 years period. He was the Minister of Information in 1993 in the Premadasa regime and was the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs during the J.R. Jayewardene regime.

From 1991 to 1994 he was the President of the Sri Lanka Cricket.

He was appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the UNF Government led by Ranil Wickremesinghe from 2001 to 2004.

He sought nomination for the prestigious UN General Secretary post as he was the Foreign Minister.

He left the UNP after the 2004 election and was later appointed Governor of North-East Province by former President Chandrika Kumaratunga on December 8, 2004. He held the position until January 2006.

Later he was appointed as a Presidential Advisor by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He is the father of one child, Shehani Mathew.