Lalith Athulathmudali (1936–1993) held the portfolios of Trade and Shipping, National Security, Agriculture and Education across the 1977–1993 period.
He was educated at Royal College, Colombo and at Oxford, where he was President of the Oxford Union, and taught law before entering politics. As Minister of Trade he created the Mahapola Higher Education Scholarship Trust, funded initially from lottery proceeds, which has since supported several hundred thousand university students and remains the largest scholarship scheme in the country.
He was Minister of National Security during the mid-1980s escalation of the civil war. He later broke with President Premadasa, and was assassinated in April 1993 while addressing a public meeting.