In which year did Mrs Bandaranaike become Prime Minister of Ceylon?
Sirimavo Bandaranaike Playing hostess to her husband S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, who was involved in politics and later became Prime Minister, she gained his trust as an informal advisor. Her social work focused on improving the lives of women and girls in rural areas of Sri Lanka. Following her husband’s assassination in 1959, Sirimavo Bandaranaike entered politics and in 1960 became the first woman elected Prime Minister of a country. Bandaranaike attempted to reform the former British Colony of Ceylon into a socialist republic by nationalizing organizations in the banking, education, industry, media and trade sectors. Changing the administrative language from
S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike (,; 8 January 1899 – 26 September 1959), frequently referred to as S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, was the fourth Prime Minister of Ceylon (later Sri Lanka) and founder of the left wing and Sinhala nationalist Sri Lanka Freedom Party, serving as Prime Minister from 1956 until his assassination by a robed Buddhist monk in 1959. Bandaranaike was born in Colombo, Ceylon, to the wealthy Sinhalese Anglican Christian Bandaranaike family, who had become one of the elite native families under the British administration. His father was Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike the Maha Mudaliyar,