Allan Morley Spaar

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Allan Morley Spaar MBE JP (23 January 1876 - 5 June 1960) was a Ceylonese public servant and local politician, serving as the second Mayor of Kandy between 1940 and 1942.

Allan Morley Spaar was born in Colombo, Ceylon on 23 January 1876, the fourth son of Reverend James Alfred Spaar, a Minister of the Wesleyan Mission, and Clara Jane née van der Straaten.[1] His eldest brother, Alfred Eaton (b. 1871), a doctor was awarded an OBE in 1950 for his medical contributions to the community. He attended Kingswood College, Kandy and in later years assisted the school, in drawing plans for a number of buildings and auditing the school's accounts.[2][3]

Spaar married Mary Ethel Jardine on 3 May 1899. They had three daughters: Mary Ethel Helen (1 April 1900); Claribel Nellie (1 February 1902); and Florence Marion Lorna (23 June 1904).[1]

In the 1930s he served as the Superintendent of Minor Roads, Kandy, having worked earlier as the superintendent of works in Ambawela and Dambulla.[4][5]

Spaar was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1938 Birthday Honours, for his services as a relief services worker.[6][7]

In 1939 he was elected to the first Kandy Municipal Council and on 4 April 1940, following the death of Sir Jayatilaka Cudah Ratwatte, he was elected as the Council's second mayor.[8][9][10]

In April 1953 he was the first elected president of the Kandy Friend in Need Society, a non for profit organisation established to care for the elderly in Kandy.[11]

Spaar died on 5 June 1960, at the age of 84.

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References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Journal of the Dutch Burger Union". Genealogy of the Spaar Family. XXV: 122-123. 1963.
  2. ^ Blaze, Louis Edmund (1934). K.F.E., the Story of Kingswood, Kandy. Colombo Apothecaries Company. pp. 35–36.
  3. ^ Toulba, Ali Foad (2000). Ceylon, the Land of Eternal Charm. Asian Educational Services. p. 255. ISBN 9788120614949.
  4. ^ "The Ceylon Government Gazette" (PDF). Ceylon Government Press. 29 August 1930. p. 1190. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
  5. ^ Bingham, Percy Moore, ed. (1923). History of the Public Works Department, Ceylon, 1796 to 1913. Vol. 3. H. R. Cottle. p. 174.
  6. ^ "No. 34518". The London Gazette (Supplement). 7 June 1938. pp. 3685–3709.
  7. ^ "Ceylon Government Gazette" (PDF). National Archives of Sri Lanka. 29 August 1930. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  8. ^ Karunaratna, Nihal (1999). Kandy, Past and Present, 1474-1998 A.D. Central Cultural Fund, Ministry of Religious and Cultural Affairs. p. 310. ISBN 9789556131215.
  9. ^ "The Ceylon Government Gazette" (PDF). Ceylon Government Press. 10 May 1940: 747. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. ^ Siriwardena, N. D. A. Silva Wijayasinghe (1945). A Report on Ceylon Affairs. Ceylon Daily News.
  11. ^ "Another step towards commitment to society". The Daily News. 11 November 2002. Retrieved 2 April 2021.