The Ceylon Planters’ Rifle Corps

Ceylon Planters’ Rifle Corps in the First World War

Suren Ratwatte
Tales from the Long War
4 min readMay 25

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By the dawn of the 20th century Ceylon was a prosperous colony. Tea and rubber plantations produced a great deal of the island’s wealth. Spread mainly in the misty highlands, on land seized by the Crown and sold to British investors at nominal rates, the sprawling estates were originally planted with coffee. But a blight decimated the bushes in the 1870s and tea (Camellia sinensis) was planted in lieu. This proved successful, with Ceylon Tea gaining a reputation as the world’s best in a few years’ time.

A typical tea estate in the central hills of Sri Lanka

The backbone of the industry was its indentured labour, mostly brought in from southern India, who lived on the estates. They were supervised by British ‘planters’, usually recruited at a relatively young age directly from Britain. The class-system was firmly in place, with planters being exclusively British (i.e. ‘white’) and from ‘good’ schools. Planters’ Clubs were scattered around the hill towns in Ceylon. Equipped with tennis courts, rugger grounds and bars, the planters would congregate there on weekends, taking a break from what must have been a lonely, albeit comfortable, life on isolated estate bungalows — at least for the bachelors.

The Ceylon Planters’ Rifle Corps (CPRC), based in Kandy, was a group of volunteers formed in 1900, some of whom saw service during the Boer War. It was part of the Ceylon Defence Force (CDF). Ceylon had been at peace for more than 50 years and did not have a large professional army at the outbreak of the war.

August 1914

When war was declared in August 1914, most of the CDF immediately volunteered. The Ceylon Light Infantry (CLI), the only full-time regiment, was retained in the country for its defence. One young man never left, having passed away just a few days after joining up. He lies in the Kandy CWGC graveyard.

Just 21 years old and dead within a few days of joining up. Pic by DP

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Suren Ratwatte
Tales from the Long War

I love airplanes and history. Trying to combine both interests in this blog, with stories of the old aircraft and the recollections of those who flew them.