Sir Henry Lawson De Mel, CBE (21 January 1877 – 8 May 1936) was a Ceylonese industrialist, lawyer, philanthropist and politician.
In 1898, he started his legal career with the law firm Peiris & De Mel and was appointed a Proctor of the Supreme Court of Ceylon in 1904.
[4][5] De Mel was the producer and exporter of the world's highest quality graphite and supplied Dixon Ticonderoga Company.
On 8 May 1936 Sir Henry De Mel died of injuries sustained after being shot while trying to resolve a dispute between two workers on one of his vast coconut plantations.
[15] He was the first Ceylonese to be appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1918 New Year Honours for services to the Government of Ceylon.