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It is not customary for this column to devote its space to Sri Lanka’s diplomats presenting their credentials to the head of the host country. It is a commonplace event, as every head of mission from whichever country he or she comes from and to whichever country he or she is posted goes through this diplomatic ritual that dates way back.

Sri Lanka has some 60 or more diplomatic missions scattered across the world. Most of them are embassies or high commissions, and only ambassadors and high commissioners posted to those missions present their credentials to the Head of the host country.

So this common or garden event, as some might call it, attracts little media interest except for perhaps a photograph of the event to tell a rather disinterested general public who, from among Sri Lanka’s career diplomats—and from outside that service—are minding our store, as it were, in that foreign country.

It also tells us who its head of state is, so that at least some of the people at home will know whether our diplomats are shaking hands or greeting with folded hands, monarchs, dictators, coup leaders who have usurped power, genuine democrats who follow the rules of democratic governance, the corrupt and the crooked pretending to serve their nation but actually denuding it for self and family, not to mention the power-hungry who will do the worst to stay on.

To mention the names of such corrupt, crooked and dictatorial heads of state who have clung to power over the years would take too much space, but our full-time and part-time diplomats would know only too well who they have shaken hands with.

Our leading politicians greet other leaders with alacrity. Diplomats do so because they are duty-bound and hopefully disinfect themselves after meetings with the crooked, corrupt and despicable.

But now and then it happens that history and circumstance make that event of importance, of historic significance largely because of the bilateral ties that have bound the two countries together for centuries.

One such event that stirred Sri Lanka’s post-independence history happened at the end of May, when the country’s most recent High Commissioner Rohitha Bogollagama presented his credentials to the United Kingdom’s new monarch, King Charles III.

Even though Bogollagama assumed duties in London in November last year, he had to wait six months to present credentials until May 30 as King Charles, who acceded to the throne at the age of 73—the oldest person to do so—was ill.

That is not unusual. I held the fort as charge’ d’affaires in Bangkok for nearly four months because the King’s Palace reported that the people’s beloved Thai King, Bhumibol Adulyadej, (who also coincidentally reigned for 70 years) was hospitalised and was not attending to royal duties. So the new ambassador, Gen. Shantha Kottegoda, had to delay his arrival and wait until the Thai Foreign Ministry informed him of the date.

What is of interest here is that a Sri Lankan high commissioner had to wait more than 70 years to shake hands with the British King when presenting credentials, for his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, reigned for 70 years—the longest-serving British monarch in the United Kingdom’s history.

So Bogollagama became the first Sri Lankan high commissioner to do so.

I have tried to trace who was the last Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) high commissioner to present his credentials to a British king, but it is not easy. According to the list of high commissioners posted to the Court of St. James in the early years after our independence in 1948, they were mostly civil servants and others who had served the country in different ways because our foreign service was still in a period of gestation.

Our first high commissioner to London was Claude Corea (1948–49), followed by Sir Oliver Goonetilleke (1949–52) and Sir Edwin Wijeyeratne (1952–54).

While the list of high commissioners states which month of the year their terms in London ended, it sadly does not indicate when the first three finished their tours of duty in London.

Why I find this important is because the then-reigning monarch, King George VI, passed away on 6th June 1952. Though both Sir Oliver Goonetilleke and Sir Edwin Wijeyeratne are said to have been accredited to the Court of St James, there is no indication which of them was the last to present his credentials to King George VI.

Though this might be of little significance to some, especially those whose aversion to imperial occupations remains rather firmly rooted, at least to those who have some interest in colonial history, it would be relevant that it took over 70 years before a Sri Lanka high commissioner could shake the hand of a British king at the presentation of his credentials.

While that might be of just passing interest to most, to High Commissioner Bogollagama, it would surely be firmly etched in his mind and his family history.

Mr. Bogollagama might have had to wait six months or more for that historic meeting with His Majesty, King Charles III, but being the active man he is, it did not mean he was lingering during that half year. Given that he has a past during which he served in many capacities—as a politician and a minister holding several portfolios, including that of foreign minister.

Over the years, he also held pivotal positions in both government and private sector institutions, such as chairman and director of the Board of Investment and director of the Export Development Board, a wide experience that has stood well during the six months he waited to meet His Majesty.

His political experience and period as foreign minister allowed him to make early contacts in the fields of local politics, trade and investment, besides tourism.

While previously our diplomats seemed to concentrate more on establishing contacts with those of the ruling Conservative Party (which I had mentioned in one of my columns a year or more ago), when more sensitive political observers were paying attention to the emergence of the Labour Party as the possible successor to the Tories, Bogollagama, with his political background, quickly made Labour and LibDem contacts that gave him a much broader perspective of where British politics was heading—an important perspective for any diplomat.

But it was not only politics that drove him. He was in search of ways and means of expanding Sri Lanka’s trade and economic contacts and pushing for investment, as the many conferences, seminars, and discussions held at the High Commission serve as proof.

Besides the British pomp and pageantry that accompanies even events like a credentials ceremony, what interested me, having witnessed British pageantry on many other occasions, was the thought that went into selecting a gift for His Majesty.

It was an exquisite and exclusive selection of James Taylor Premium Ceylon Tea with a book about Taylor, who was the “father” of tea, having first brought tea to Sri Lanka. James Taylor was of Scottish origin, and the well-thought-out gift reminds the British Royal Family that every monarch of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom since James VI of Scotland has descended from the Scottish Royal House of Stuart.

What is more, both Queen Elizabeth and her son, King Charles, had a special affection for Sri Lanka and its people and visited the country more than once.

(Neville de Silva is a veteran Sri Lankan journalist who was Assistant Editor of the Hong Kong Standard and worked for Gemini News Service in London. Later, he was Deputy Chief-of-Mission in Bangkok and Deputy High Commissioner in London.)