Wathumullage Gratien Hubert Fernando CGA (1915 – 5 August 1942) was the leader of the Cocos Islands Mutiny and an agitator for the independence of Sri Lanka from the British.

[2] Here, he argued with his officers and agitated for action among his colleagues: his agenda was to create an increase in the support for Sri Lankan independence from British rule.

He finally persuaded a core group to rebel, seize the island and signal the Japanese that they had done so; 30 out of 56 soldiers of his unit took part.

[3] The commanding officer on Cocos, Captain George Gardiner, an accountant in Colombo who obtained an emergency war commission, while focus of the mutineers' actions, also presided at the Field General Court Martial which convicted them.

Fernando showed defiance to the end, his last words being "Loyalty to a country under the heel of a white man is disloyalty".