He played in the Royal-Thomian cricket matches from 1915-1917 as an accurate off spinner,[2][3] captained the football team and won his colours in boxing.
T. D. S. A. Dissanayake states that he had a natural flair for leadership and was a devout Christian showing an inclination towards priesthood while at school.
He is also credited for having introduced both classical Sinhala and Hela Basa to S. Thomas’ College Mt Lavinia through recruitment of teachers such as Arisen Ahubudu, Sandadas Coperehewa, GL Jinadasa and D.S.
[9] During the second world war when the school was evacuated to Gurutalawa he also served as the first Ceylonese vicar of the Holy Trinity Church, Nuwara Eliya, in addition to his responsibilities as Warden.
At the official function at which de Saram Road was dedicated and named, State Councillor / Parliamentary Secretary and Chairman of the Urban Council Simon Abeywickrama paid tribute to de Saram's integrity by stating that "the road, like the warden himself, was dead straight".
[18] He was known to have boycotted the languages commission in protest about a single language policy and criticised the serving prime minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike for his stance on the matter in his wardens speech when the prime minister, himself a distinguished alumnus was the chief guest at the prize giving in 1958 where words attributed to him in this speech are: "this is said to be the age of the common man.
But it is certainly also the age of the Demagogue, the man with the loud voice and fluent vocabulary and specious tongue who debases his gifts by devoting them to misrepresentation of facts, the stirring up of hatred, the vilifying of persons and causes to which he is opposed the man with much cleverness but little wisdom who is prepared to sacrifice the peace and prosperity of the country to the gaining of some petty personal or party triumph.