George de Silva initially worked as a reporter for the Ceylon Independent and ran a vegetable stall to make ends meet.

Moving to Kandy, de Silva established a lucrative legal practice in criminal law in the unofficial bar which was at the time dominated by Burger proctors.

In 1915, de Silva and E. W. Perera carried a secret memorandum initiated and drafted by Sir James Peiris to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, pleading for the repeal of martial law and vindication of the reputations of those who had been falsely accused during the riots of 1915.

Having been re-elected in the 1936 Ceylonese State Council election from Kandy, he was appointed Minister of Health in 1942 and served till 1947.

During his tenure, he focused on establishing 250 rural hospitals and started the DDT campaign to control the Malaria epidemic.

[4] In June 1946, he was appointed Justice of the Peace for the Colombo District by the Governor of Ceylon on the occasion of the King's birthday.

His grandson, Sir Desmond de Silva, was the United Nations Chief War Crimes Prosecutor in Sierra Leone and husband of Princess Katarina of Yugoslavia.