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Sir William Ivor Jennings (1903-1965)

Sir William Ivor Jennings K.B.E, Q.C., Litt.D., LL.D., F.B.A. (16 May 1903 - 19th December 1965) was born in Bristol and attended Queen Elizabeth' Hospital School and Bristol Grammar School from 1916. He went up to St Catherine's College, Cambridge in 1922 and read mathematics and law obtaining first class degrees in 1926. He married Helena Kousalik on 2nd february 1928.

He was a lecturer in Law at the University of Leeds from 1925 but moved to the London School of Economics in 1929. In 1938 he undeertook a lecture tour of Canada and the Eastern United States of America. The outbreak of Word War II saw him aboard a German passenger ship which put him and his family ashore in Kobe, Japan. He found his way back to England and in 1940 was appointed Principal of Ceylon University eventually arriving in Ceylon 22nd March 1941.

The Bill creating the University of Ceylon, there was a university college of Ceylon, was passed in April 1942 just days after the Japanese raids on Colobo and Galle on April 5th and 8th 1942. Jennings worked for the Civil Defence Department as a deputy commissioner for food and as Chairman of the Publicity Committee. Here, he claimed, he published his most read work; a poster stating 'Looting is publishable with death.'

He became the Vice Chancellor of the new University and oversaw its relocation to Peradeniya, a small hill town close to the second city of Kandy. His travels between Colombo and Peradeniya led to a charming guidebook, The Kandy Road. During a period of leave in England in 1945, his mother Eleanor neé Thomas died in Bristol.

Ivor Jennings collaborated closely with the Ceylonese government in drawing up a constitution prior to independence of Ceylon. Independence was granted on 4th Feb 1948 although Jennings had requested that it be on February 2nd, his wedding anniversary. D.S. Senanayake, the first president, had forgotten that the 2nd was an auspicious day. Sir Ivor was knighted that year.

Sir Ivor retired as VC of the University of Peradeniya, as it is now known, and returned to England. He became Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge and served as Vice Chancellor of the University of Cambridge between 1961-63. He died on 19th December 1965.

Sir Ivor wiliam Jennings published numerous books and paper on local and national government. His books on The British Constitution, The Constitutiion of Ceylon and the Law and the Constitution ran to many editions.