Editing Vernon Corea (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Royal College Colombo main building.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Vernon Corea attended the [[Royal College, Colombo]]. He represented his school in tennis, participated in drama productions and was a member of the Royal [[debating]] team.]]
Corea was born in [[Kurana, Sri Lanka|Kurana]], [[Katunayake]], [[Sri Lanka|Ceylon]] (present-day [[Sri Lanka]]) on 11 September 1927. His parents were Reverend Canon Ivan Corea and Ouida Corea, and was the brother of [[Ernest Corea]], a prominent journalist and former Ambassador to the United States. Rev. Corea was Vicar of St. Luke's Church, [[Borella]], and St. Paul's Church, [[Milagiriya]].

His family hailed from the west coast town of [[Chilaw]] in Sri Lanka and were direct descendants of General [[Dominicus Corea]], also known as Edirille Rala who was tasked to take over Kotte in 1596 for King Vimala Dharmasurya I. His grandfather was Dr. [[James Alfred Ernest Corea]], brother of the famed [[Resistance movement|freedom fighters]] of Sri Lanka, [[Charles Edgar Corea]] and [[Victor Corea]], founders of the Chilaw Association and the Ceylon National Congress. Recognising their role in the independence movement, [[Mahatma Gandhi]], known as the 'Father of India,' visited Chilaw on his first and only visit to Ceylon in 1927 and met Vernon's grandfather in a Corea home called 'Sigiriya.'<ref name="Mahatma Gandhi">{{cite web|title=Gandhi at Sigiriya – article in the Daily News, Sri Lanka|url=http://chilaw-and-gandhi.tripod.com/id3.html|access-date=25 July 2011|archive-date=13 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813130744/http://chilaw-and-gandhi.tripod.com/id3.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Vernon Corea was educated at [[Royal College, Colombo]] a well known education institution, in Sri Lanka.<ref name="Royal College">{{cite web |title=Royal College, Colombo, Sri Lanka |url=http://www.royalcollege.lk/|access-date=4 September 2008}}</ref> He represented the school in tennis and was fully involved in the world of drama and the debating society. He was sent by his father to [[Bishop’s College, Calcutta]],<ref name="Bishop's College">{{cite web|title=A History of Bishop's College, Calcutta |url=http://bishopscollege.org/history.htm |access-date=1 October 2008 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080905174726/http://bishopscollege.org/history.htm |archive-date=5 September 2008 }}</ref> [[India]] for training into the priesthood. In Calcutta he was elected President of the Ceylon Students Association and acted in drama performances. He felt that the priesthood was not his vocation and returned to Ceylon, after the death of his mother.{{cn|date=May 2024}}