Thomas Skinner was born in Canada, on 22nd May 1804. He arrived in Ceylon in 1818 when
he was only 14 years of age. In 1820, he was instrumental in the constructions of the Colombo – Kandy highway.
He was appointed the head of the Colombo Defence Guard in 1825, Lieutenant Quartermaster General and
Surveyor General in 1833, and commissioner of highways in 1841. Major Thomas Skinner is known as the
“greatest road maker of Ceylon”. He left an account of his work in his autobiography published in1891:
Fifty Years in Ceylon.