General (Sri Lanka)

General
General;
	Admiral (navy); Air chief marshal (air force)

General (abbreviated as Gen.) is the highest attainable and full general rank of the

four-star rank

.

The rank of full general is not always given; this rank is held by a Chief of the Defence Staff (if the chief is appointed from the army and not from the navy or the air force) or is mostly awarded as a ceremonial rank to the Commander of the Army on his day of retirement.

General is a higher rank than

Air Chief Marshal in the Sri Lanka Air Force

.

History

When the

major general

in 1958.

In 1974, then commander of the army,

lieutenant general

and ever since then all serving commanders of the army held the rank of lieutenant general, customarily promoted to the rank on appointment to the post of commander of the army.

Sepala Attygalle became the first officer to be promoted to the rank of general on his retirement from the army on 13 October 1977. Former Prime Minister of Ceylon,

field marshal was created. General remains the highest rank under the Army Act and is the highest pay grade in the army. In 2020, Shavendra Silva

was promoted to the rank while concurrently serving as both commander of the army and chief of the defence staff.

Notable full generals

General of the Volunteer Force

Three former members of the volunteer force have been awarded the

honorary rank of General of the Volunteer Force

of the Army.

General Sir John Kotelawala (1980) — Former Prime Minister of Ceylon and Minister of Defense and External Affairs.
General Ranjan Wijeratne (1991 - posthumously) — Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of State for Defence.
General Anuruddha Ratwatte (1995) — Minister of Power and Energy and Deputy Minister for Defence

Insignia

A general officer's insignia is a crossed sword and baton. A

General both a pip and the Sri Lanka emblem. The Gorget patches of the General officer pattern, gold/silver oak leaf chain of two oak leave, four gold/silver stars on scarlet background with a gold/silver button; worn on Dress No 2A, 4, 5, 5A, 6, 6A, 6B, 7 and 8. The Gorget patches of the General Officers Large/Medium patterns, of gold braided (bullion wire) three oak leaves on scarlet background with a gold button, worn by the officers in the rank of major general and above for Dress No1, No 3 and 3A.^[2]

References

^ Former service chiefs promoted
^ "Dress Regulation PDF - Part I" (PDF). army.lk. Sri Lanka Army. Retrieved 20 May 2021.

Army, Sri Lanka. (1st Edition - October 1999). "50 YEARS ON" - 1949-1999,
ISBN 955-8089-02-8

External links

[promo-1] Former service chiefs promoted

[2] "Dress Regulation PDF - Part I" (PDF). army.lk. Sri Lanka Army. Retrieved 20 May 2021.

[2]