Wilson, A. Jeyaratnam (Alfred Jeyaratnam)

Alfred Jeyaratnam Wilson was born on October 4, 1928 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to Kanagasabay Rajaratnam Wilson and Elizabeth Ariammah Dutton. Wilson completed a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from the University of Ceylon in 1950, a Ph.D from the London School of Economics, University of London in 1956, and a DSc. (Econ.) from the University of London in 1977. In 1953, he and Suseelavathy Chelvanayakam (daughter of Samuel James Velupillai Chelvanayakam) were married in Colombo. Wilson taught political science at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka from 1956 to 1972. After completing several fellowships in the UK, Canada, and the US, in 1972 he became professor of Political Science and Chairman of the Department of Political Science at the University of New Brunswick. He remained at UNB until 1994, after which he was appointed Professor Emeritus. From 1978 to 1984 Wilson also acted as an advisor to the Sri Lankan government. He and his family later moved to Toronto, where he passed away on 31 May 2000.

Wilson wrote and edited nine books on Sri Lankan politics as well as numerous essays and reviews published in academic journals. His books include: "An Introduction to Civics and Government" (1954); "Politics in Sri Lanka, 1947–1973" (1974); "Electoral Politics in an Emergent State: the Ceylon General Election of May 1970" (1975); "The Gaullist System in Asia" (1980); "The States of South Asia: Problems of National Integration: Essays in honour of W.H. Morris-Jones" (1982, editor, with Dennis Dalton); "The Break-up of Sri Lanka: The Sinhalese-Tamil Conflict" (1988); "S. J. V. Chelvanayakam and the Crisis of Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism, 1947–1977: A Political Biography" (1994); "Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism: Its Origins and Development in the 19th and 20th Centuries" (2000); and "The Post-Colonial States of South Asia: Democracy, Development and Identity" (2001, editor, with Amita Shastri).