After his death, part of this property comprising many buildings was donated to the University of Ceylon by his family, in his memory in 1976.

In 1935 he became a founding member of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, becoming active politics and the Sri Lankan independence movement.

He contested the 1947 general election from the Matugama electorate as an Independent Socialist, defeating the "father of free education" C.W.W.

He was re-elected in the 1952 general election from the Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party, defeating D. D. Athulathmudali.

He was married to Esme Perera Abeywardena, a grand daughter of the late Sir Charles Henry de Soysa, Sri Lanka's foremost Philanthropist.