The death occurred on Thursday morning of Mrs. Gnana Moonesinghe, 89, wife of the late Mangala Moonesinghe, long serving MP and Sri Lanka’s former High Commissioner to India and the UK.

Mrs. Moonesinghe who leaves two children, Avanti and Sanath, a son-in-law Murtaza Esufally and daughter-in-law Holly, graduated in 1959 Economics with a Special in Political Science from theUniversity of Ceylon, Peradeniya and helped her husband greatly in his political and diplomatic work.

A professional in her own right, she worked for sometime at the Marga Institute and ran an NGO called Shramaya. She also served on the Disputes Resolution Council of the Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka.

She was the daughter of a Cambridge educated barrister, Mr. A.Coomaraswamy, who was the highly respected princial of Jaffna Ladies College.