Colonial Secretary of Ceylon
The Colonial Secretary of Ceylon was one of six offices that held a seat in the Executive Council of Ceylon.
The post was replaced with that of Chief Secretary of Ceylon by the Order in Council, 1931.
List of Colonial Secretaries
Data based on:- John Ferguson, Ceylon in the "jubilee Year"., J. Haddon and Co.,1887
- Ceylon: Its History, People, Commerce, Industries and Resources, Plâté limited, 1924
| # | Colonial Secretary | Took office | Left office | Appointed by |
| 1 | Hugh Cleghorn | 12 October 1798 | 1800 | Frederick North |
| - | William Boyd | January 1800 | 1801 | Frederick North |
| 2 | Robert Arbuthnot | 10 September 1801 | 1806 | Frederick North |
| 3 | John Rodney | 3 September 1806 | 1833 | Thomas Maitland |
| 4 | Philip Anstruther | 1 May 1833 | 1845 | Robert Wilmot-Horton |
| 5 | James Emerson Tennent | 29 November 1845 | 1851 | Colin Campbell |
| 6 | Charles Justin MacCarthy | 2 January 1851 | 1860 | George Byng |
| 7 | W. C. Gibson | 10 August 1860 | 1869 | Charles Edmund Wilkinson |
| 8 | Henry Turner Irving | 4 June 1869 | 1873 | Hercules Robinson |
| 10 | Arthur Birch | 3 June 1873 | 1878 | William Henry Gregory |
| 11 | John Douglas | 18 August 1878 | 1885 | James Robert Longden |
| 12 | Cecil Clementi Smith | 17 November 1885 | 1887 | Arthur Hamilton-Gordon |
| 13 | Edward Noël Walker | 10 November 1887 | 1901 | Arthur Hamilton-Gordon |
| 14 | Everard im Thurn | 18 June 1901 | 1904 | Joseph West Ridgeway |
| 15 | Alexander Murray Ashmore | 10 September 1904 | 7 December 1906 | Henry Arthur Blake |
| Hugh Clifford | 3 May 1907 | Henry Arthur Blake | ||
| - | Leonard William Booth | 1911 | Henry McCallum | |
| Reginald Edward Stubbs | 1913 | 1919 | Reginald Edward Stubbs | |
| Cecil Clementi | 1922 | 1925 | William Manning | |
| Arthur George Murchison Fletcher | 1926 | 1929 | ||
| Bernard Henry Bourdillon | 1929 | 1932 | Herbert Stanley |