John Adrian St. Valentine Jayewardene

A son of James Alfred Jayewardene (a Proctor who was the Deputy Coroner of Colombo), John's brothers included Hector Alfred Jayewardene (an advocate and member of the Colombo Municipal Council), Colonel Theodore Godfrey Wijesinghe Jayewardene (a Member of the State Council for Balangoda electorate), and Eugene Wilfred Jayewardene, who also became a Judge of the Supreme Court.^{[citation needed]}

Jayewardene was educated at the Royal College, Colombo, and called to the bar at the Inner Temple, becoming a barrister.^{[citation needed]}

In 1901, he returned to Ceylon and began his practice as an advocate.^{[citation needed]} In 1904, he published the Law of Partition in Ceylon, which he revised and published again 20 years later.^[1][2]

In 1915, he was part of the legal defence team for Henry Pedris, which tried unsuccessfully to prevent his execution.^[3]

From 1922 to 1924 he served as the district judge of Colombo and in 1923 was appointed acting puisne justice thereafter confirmed as Judge of the Supreme Court of Ceylon.^{[2][additional citation(s) needed]}