Merlyn Kumarasinhe was a surgeon who worked in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He was born on 12 December 1920 in Colombo, the son of Cyril Mendis Kumarasinhe, an interpreter, and Florence Bridget Kumarasinhe née Fernando. Two of his brothers - Lachlan and Hiary (who spelt the family name Kumarasinghe) - also became fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons. Merlyn Kumarasinhe attended the Royal College, Colombo and then studied medicine at the University of Ceylon. After junior posts he went to the UK, where he held posts in Hitchin and at St Mary Abbot's Hospital, Kensington, London. He gained his FRCS in 1958. In 1959 he returned to Ceylon and became a consultant at Anuradhapura General Hospital. He moved to the General Hospital in Kandy in 1964 and to the General Hospital in Colombo in 1968, both of which were teaching hospitals. Outside medicine he was a farmer. In 1958 he married Renee M C Le Goff.