Chitral de Silva was a general surgeon in Sri Lanka. He was born in Ceylon on 15 April 1927, the son of S H de Silva, an engineer, and H W de Silva. He came from a medical family: his uncle H O Gunewardene was a radiologist, while two of his brothers (H S de Silva and G L de Silva) and a sister (S M de Silva) went on to become doctors. Chitral de Silva was educated at St Thomas' College in Colombo and then went on to study medicine at the University of Ceylon, qualifying in 1950. After junior posts, he went to the UK for further training at the Hammersmith Hospital and the London. He was a house officer at Woolwich Memorial, Hammersmith and Middlesex hospitals, and then a senior house officer in the casualty departments of Poplar and King Edward Memorial hospitals. While in London he also trained under Ian Aird at Hammersmith Hospital and with John Percy Lockhart-Mummery and Clifford Naunton Morgan at St Mark's. He gained his FRCS in 1963. Outside medicine, he enjoyed shooting and filming wild life. He was married to Gnana Perera, a paediatric surgeon in Colombo. They had one child, Sandini. Chitral de Silva died on 14 April 2007. He was 79.