Nalin Rodrigo

Rodrigo was a great-grandson Sir Charles Henry de Soysa.^[3] His father Professor J. L. C. Rodrigo from a famous family of Panadura was a Ryde Gold Medal winner at Trinity College, Kandy, read classics at Oxford University as a contemporary of S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike and was Professor of Western Classics at the University of Ceylon.^[4] Educated at Royal College Colombo, Rodrigo studied medicine Colombo Medical College now known as Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo

Rodrigo trained in Sri Lanka and in the United Kingdom where he became a member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists by examination. He was one of the 4 house officers appointed at the inception of Castle Street Maternity Hospital 1n 1952. ^[5] He returned to Sri Lanka spending 19 years in peripheral hospitals before being appointed to Castle Street Hospital for Women.^[6]

Rodrigo made many contributions to developing the speciality in Sri Lanka, served as president of the Sri Lanka College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Rodrigo trained many of the leading Obstetricians in practice and was regarded as a mentor by many.^[7] Professor Chamberlain, President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is reputed to have commented on his role as a trainer of Obstetricians with a statement that "he (Prof Chamberlain) seemed to be the only Obstetrician in the country who had not worked with Dr. Rodrigo".^[8] Rodrigo is referred to as "the godfather of the quest to reduce maternal mortality and doyen of obstetricians" by Dr MALR Perera Secretary of Health.^[9]