He was the founder of the Diabetes Association of Sri Lanka and a professor of pharmacology at the North Colombo Medical College.

Upendra Srinath Jayawickrama was the eldest of three siblings born into a family of lawyers on 29 January 1930.

Having spent two years as a trainee under PB Fernando, Jayawickrama travelled to the United Kingdom for further studies, becoming first a Member and then a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

On his return to Sri Lanka he worked in Nuwara Eliya as a visiting physician and in 1970 was appointed consultant physician at General Hospital Colombo (later National Hospital of Sri Lanka), a post he occupied for twenty years, working with colleagues Surendra Ramachandran (with whom he co founded the medical intensive care unit in National Hospital of Sri Lanka), P. T. de Silva, W. A. S. de Silva, and J.

Well known subjects to have portraits commissioned included Chandrika Kumaratunga President of Sri Lanka and G. L. Peiris.