Born at Waragoda, Kelaniya, he was the eldest male child of Don Daniel Jayatilaka, a government servant, and his wife Liyanage Dona Elisiyana Perera Weerasinha, daughter of oriental scholar, Don Andiris de Silva Batuwantudawe of Werahena. He had two brothers, and two sisters, both of whom died young.
He first met Colonel Henry Steel Olcott in 1890 and joined his campaign to establish English medium Buddhist schools in the country. In 1898 he was appointed as the Principal of the Buddhist High School in Kandy, thereafter he became the vice principal of the English Buddhist School in Colombo under principal C. W. Leadbeater. Several years later he succeed Leadbeater as principal. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Young Men's Buddhist Association at Borella becoming its president in 1898 and holding the post until his death. He left for Europe in 1910, spending three years there. During which he attended the representative of Ceylon, at the Congress of Religions in Berlin; gained a BA from Oxford and became a Barrister. During the 1915 riots he was arrested under orders of General Officer Commanding, Ceylon seditious speeches and writings. Imprisoned under Martial Law along with many leading personalities of the day. Soon after his release he left for Britain where he campaigned for the injustices in Ceylon and for the calls a Royal Commission to investigate the 1915 riots. When the National Congress of Ceylon was formed he became its representative in London. He returned in 1919 and was elected President of the Ceylon National Congress in 1923. Soon thereafter he was elected from the Colombo District to the Legislative Council of Ceylon and was elected as its vice-president after the demise of Sir James Peiris in 1930. The post of President was held by the Governor of Ceylon. Following the constitutional reforms of the Donoughmore Commission, Jayatilaka was elected to the newly formed State Council of Ceylon and became Leader of the House and Minister for Home Affairs. In 1943 he was knighted for his services to the country. During World War II, he help organise volunteers to unload food from ships at the Colombo harbour after it was deserted following Japanese air raids. In August 1943, he went to India to negotiate food shipments to Ceylon after they stopped by the Indian Government. Following successful concretion of negotiations he was appointed as Representative of Government of Ceylon in New Delhi. He served as President of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society from 1935 to 1941. He was the founding chief editor of the monumental monolingual etymological Sinhala dictionary, Siṃhala śabdakoṣaya, and the related A Dictionary of the Sinhalese Language His extraordinary leadership of the project and editorial service extended from 1927 through 1941. Sir D. B. Jayathilaka served as the president of Young Men's Buddhist Association for a continuous period of 46 years, from 1898 until his death in 1944. Under his influence Colombo YMBA inaugurated a program for promoting 'Dhamma School education', with the obligation of giving every Buddhist child in Ceylon the gift of Dhamma”.
Personal life
He married Mallika Batuwantudawe in 1898, they had five children, three daughters and two sons.
Death & legacy
In 1944, he fell ill and began his return to Ceylon. He died on 29 May 1944 due to a heart attack in Bangalore. His body was returned to Ceylon in a special plane for the final rites. Sir Baron Jayatilaka was highly respected during his lifetime by both Ceylonese and British. Following his retirement from the State Council, he held the first diplomatic appointment of the Government of Ceylon. In 2018, a statue of Sir Baron Jayatilaka was erected at Thurburn House, Colombo.
