Don Jacolis Rupasinghe Gunawardena (Boralugoda Ralahamy) and Dona Liyanora Gunasekara of the well-known Boralugoda family in Seethawaka had ten children. Their third child, Don Philip Gunawardene, was born on January 11, 1901, and was later described by Charles Wesley Ervin, an authority on the Trotskyite movement, as “a towering political personality, a fiery, charismatic and energetic visionary whose brilliant mind often raced far ahead of his comrades.”