James Selvanathan Mather – Great Achiever in Many Spheres

By Sam Thuraisingham 

• Mather witnessed during his lifetime the general decline in various aspects of life in Sri Lanka

James Selvanathan Mather, Senior Chartered Accountant, Former Senior Partner of Ernst and Young, Corporate leader and Director of many companies passed away recently at the age of 95. 

Mather was born in Jaffna to an illustrious family in Manipay. Manipay is the hometown of Sir Muthu Coomaraswamy, Sir Ponnambalam brothers, Dr. James Rutnam, Dr Issac Thambiah, The Sellamuttu family, and Albert Page of Ceylon Theaters Group etc. 

He was the son of Rev. James S Mather, the Head of the Methodist Church of Sri Lanka and Packiam. His grandfather was William Mather, a leading Jaffna Entrepreneur of the 19th century. William Mather was also the great grandfather of Former Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, First Sri Lankan Navy Commander Rajan Kadirgamar, leading lawyer Sam Kadirgamar QC and KPMG Head Rajan Asirwatham. 

Mather studied at Hartley College, Point Pedro and subsequently at Trinity College, Kandy. 

He passed out with an honours degree from the University of Ceylon when Sir Ivor Jennings was the Vice Chancellor. 

After a stint at the Central Bank of Ceylon and the Department of Inland Revenue, he proceeded to UK where he qualified as Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants, England and Wales. 

Mather married Dr. Srikanthi Handy, the only daughter of Dr. George Rajanayagam (GR) Handy, the leading Cardiac Physician of Ceylon. They had a son -- Rohan Mather -- who passed out as a Chartered Accountant in London and held leading positions with Ernst and Young, London and Price WaterHouse Coopers, London. They later separated,  and he then married Nelun with whom he had a happy marriage of 50 years. 

He served Ernst and Young for over 50 years and retired as Senior Partner. Mather witnessed during his lifetime the general decline in various aspects of life in Sri Lanka, namely the education, proficiency of the English language, discipline, enforcement of the law, decline in  ethnic relations between the majority and minority Communities, and the brain drain of skilled and qualified people to foreign lands. 

May his soul rest in peace.