H. E. P. de Mel
Hugh Edmund Peter de Mel (17 June 1907 – 27 September 1992) was a Ceylonese politician and businessman. He was born in Moratuwa, the son of Cornelis Francis de Mel. His family was involved in the safety match industry, and his brother Joseph Ford Francis was also a key figure in the field.
In 1929, de Mel started the Lanka Light Match factory in Moratuwa. He married Susima Swarnamalie Dias in 1931.
As a member of the United National Party, he was elected to Parliament as the MP for Talawake in the 1952 election, serving from 1952 to 1956. He won with 1,198 votes (54%), beating his nearest rival by 352 votes. In the 1956 election, he ran for Moratuwa instead of Talawake but was defeated by Meryl Fernando of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party by 7,718 votes. Fernando had previously tried to organize workers at de Mel’s factory in 1945.
Besides politics, de Mel held a leadership role in industry, serving as Deputy Chairman on the Executive Council of the Ceylon National Chamber of Industries for several years in the 1960s.
He died in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 27 September 1992, aged 85. He was survived by his wife Susima (who died in 1967) and their children: Ranjanie Mendis, Jayampathie, and Sunitha Rodrigo. The family lived at Melgreen in Koralawella, Moratuwa. He attended Prince of Wales College, Moratuwa.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 17:25 (CET).