Reginald Ratnaraja Cooke was a senior consultant surgeon at the National Cancer Hospital, Maharagama, Sri Lanka. His parents were Gunaratnam Franklin Cooke, a doctor, and Gladys Lolita Cooke née Paul. He qualified in 1952 and went to the UK for his surgical training, gaining his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1958 and of England in 1959. He was married to Pathmini (née Edwards). They had three sons, Neal Jitendra, Roy Dharmendra and Richard Ravendra, and six grandchildren, Dylan, Mithran, Romina, Sabrina, Isabel and Rebecca. He died in 2017.