Colombo’s Cenotaph War Memorial, built in 1923, honors Ceylonese soldiers of WWI & WWII. It was moved to Viharamahadevi Park for safety during WWII.
Cenotaph War Memorial (Colombo) Cenotaph War Memorial is a war monument located in the Colombo Public Library premises adjacent to the Viharamahadevi Park in Colombo District, Sri Lanka. It has been erected in memory of war heroes from Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) who were killed in action during World War I (1914-1918) and World War II [(1939-1945) Cornelissen & Weinrich, 2020]. Sri Lanka in World Wars Sri Lanka in the First World War World War I centred in Europe began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon, as a part of the British Empire, offered the service of approximately 2000 volunteers from the Ceylon Defence Force, and 442 among them did not survive. The closest fighting to Sri Lanka took place in the Bay of Bengal, where an Australian warship sank a German cruiser. Sri Lanka in the Second World War World War II was begun on 1 September 1939 and lasted till 2 September 1945. The two naval bases in Colombo and Trincomalee in Sri Lanka were attacked by Japan after the fa…