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The Lost Boy From Ceylon SWRD’s sister who vanished from Ceylon with her adopted son-by Hugh Karunanayake Source:Island Anna Florentina Dias Bandaranaike was the elder daughter of the wealthy Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike and was born at the turn of the 20th Century in June 1900, one and a half years after the birth of her elder brother S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, later to be Prime Minister of Ceylon. Anna’s mother Daisy Ezlynne was the daughter of Sir Christoffel Obeyesekera, and was herself an heiress. The Bandaranaike children were to inherit extensive wealth in the form of coconut estates and house property in Colombo. Both SWRD and his sister Anna were born in Elie House, Mutwal, a stately home of which Sir Solomon’s family were the last occupants, before it was acquired by the Government for building a reservoir on its grounds. Anna was surrounded by wealth, and her early years were ...