History
The Ceylon Army General Service Corps was raised on 14 December 1951 with Lt. Col B.J Wijemanne, MBE, ED as first Commanding Officer. The unit was then administered by the headquarters company of the Army HQ. The Pay and Records Wing which was established on 14 October 1949 and the Education Branch were amalgamated in 1954. The Army Education Branch was instrumental in translating army forms, preparation of a comprehensive Sinhala vocabulary and teaching Sinhala to those who were yet conversant in the language.
The Army Band was formed on 22 June 1950 with Lt (Quarter Master) George Perry, a seconded officer form the British Army and 28 local bandsmen. In 1955 the then Acting Commander of the Army Col. H.W.G Wijekoon, OBE, ED, CLI (later Major General) initiated the forming of the Hewisi Band along with Lt C.T Caldera, CLI and Mr Lional Edirisinghe who was one of Sri Lanka’s foremost musicians. S/Sgt Wickramasinghe D. was the first Bandmaster. The cultural troupe of the National Service Regiment (NSR) under Capt. Clarence Delwela was absorbed into the SLAGSC when the NSR was disbanded in 1977. Today, the regiment has three bands which take part in all military ceremonials in the country and a cultural troupe.
In 1956 a small farm was established at Panagoda which was the beginning of the farm projects in the Army. Maj. R Wijesinghe (later Colonel) was the pioneer agriculturist and the main figure behind the successful farm projects in the Army. Since then the army farms are also a part of the corps responsibility and they provide most of their produce to the Service Corps.
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