Henry Thambiah
Sri Lankan judge (1906–1997)

Henry Wijeyakone Tambiah (1906–1997) was a Ceylonese academic, diplomat, lawyer and judge, born in Sri Lanka during British colonial rule. He was a Commissioner of Assize, High Commissioner and judge of the Supreme Courts of Ceylon and Sierra Leone.
Early life and family
Tambiah was born on 28 May 1906 in Jaffna in northern province of Ceylon. He was the son of David Tambiah, a surveyor, and Thangamma, daughter of Dr William Thillayampalam Paul and sister of Dr S. C. Paul. Both his parents died when he was child. Tambiah was educated at St. John's College, Jaffna and Jaffna Central College from where he passed the London matriculation in the first division. His ambition was to be an engineer. After school he entered University College, Colombo and graduated in 1928 with a BSc (Hons) degree in maths and physics. He taught physics for a year before becoming interest in the legal profession.
“Henry Thambiah” enters the record as sri Lankan judge (1906–1997). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Henry, Thambiah and Lankan can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Henry Thambiah” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Henry, Thambiah and Lankan provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5628651. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1906, 1997 and 1928.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Henry Thambiah”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Henry Thambiah primary sources, Henry Thambiah archive and Henry research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Henry Thambiah”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Henry Thambiah” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.