Sri Lanka Army Women's Corps

The corps was created by the help of the British Army's Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC) and 3 women were sent to Britain for eight months long officer training who returned to Sri Lanka in August 1979 after completion of training and were taken into the women's corps in November of the same year. Lieutenant Colonel A.W. Thambiraja who was later promoted to Brigadier was the first commanding officer of this corps and Lieutenant Colonel Kumudini Weerasekara was the first female commanding officer.^[3] Instructors from Britain's WRAC came to Sri Lanka in 1980 to train Sri Lankan females for women's corps and 10 women were trained into the Army Training Centre, Diyatalawa for one month, and after passing out they were directly given the corporal rank. In 1981, 45 females were recruited and were given training of clerical works and exchange operators, this was the first batch of females who were in the rank private, the second batch of female privates was taken in the same year who were also given training on clerical duties and also signal duties. In 1984, the fifth batch of female privates was taken, and this batch was given light machine gun training, this was the first batch of the women's corps where weapon training was conducted. In 1987, 8 women were deployed into the Vadamarachchi Operation, this was the first combat operation where women's corps members participated.^[4]

• Susanthika Jayasinghe - Olympic silver medal winner at the 2000 Summer Olympics.
• Nadeeka Lakmali - Silver medalist at the Asian Championships and South Asian Games.^[5]
• Dilhani Lekamge - Silver medalist Asian Championships.
• Nadeesha Ramanayake - Gold medalist at the Asian Championships.^[6]