Evelyn Charles Arthur Villiers JP UPM (16 July 1884 - 27 October 1968) was a British planter and politician in colonial Ceylon.
Evelyn Charles Arthur Villiers was born 16 July 1884, the fourth (and youngest son) of seven children to Frederick Ernest Villiers (1840-1922) and Jane Isabella née Baird.[1] [2]
Villiers married Dorothy Katherine née Moore-Lane (1884-1976) on 17 July 1907, they had three children: Robert Alexander (b. 1908), Marjorie Frances (b. 1909) and Kenneth Charles Howard (b. 1912).
In 1909, at the age of twenty-five, he moved to Ceylon and worked on several tea plantations.[3] [4] In 1924 he became the manager of the Hemingford Group, a major tea company based in the Kelani Valley.
He was one of eight members appointed by Governor Sir Graeme Thomson to the 1st State Council of Ceylon in July 1931,[5] where he served on the Executive Committee for Communication and Works.[6]
Villiers was subsequently appointed as one of the nominated European members of the 2nd State Council of Ceylon on 12 March 1936.[7] [8] He resigned from the State Council on 30 April 1938 and was replaced by Reginald Percy Gaddum.[9] On 14 February 1939 he was re-appointed as a member of the State Council,[10] replacing Gaddum who resigned from the State Council in January that year. He resigned from the State Council a second time on 7 April 1947.
Villiers served on the Planter's Association of Ceylon, including a term as chairman (1928-29),[3] and was the Association's representative on the State Council.
He died on 27 October 1968 at age 84.