Daya Perera
Lt. Colonel Daya Perera, PC was a Sri Lankan diplomat and lawyer, who was the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Canada and Ambassador to the United Nations in New York City.
Education
Educated at Royal College Colombo, Perera excelled in sports gaining college colours for rugby football and playing in the Bradby Shield Encounter as part of the first Royal College team to win the Bradby Shield. After leaving school he studied law at the University of Ceylon and Colombo Law College.Legal career
After taking his oaths as an advocate, Perera worked as a crown counsel for the Attorney General's Department. With the formation of the Legal Branch of the Sri Lanka Army, Perera was seconded to the army to serve as an adviser. He was commissioned as a captain in the Ceylon Light Infantry and was promoted as a lieutenant colonel. He attended a course on military law with the Army Legal Services Branch of the British Army. Later he resigned from the Attorney General's Department and joined the Unofficial bar.Developing a legal practice in the Unofficial bar, Perera served as the Deputy President of the Bar Association, Councilor of Law Asia, Vice President of Indo-Pacific Congress on Legal medicines and Forensic Sciences and President Medico Legal Society. He was made a President's Counsel in 1981.