He was born in Payagala in Kalutara, southern Sri Lanka, and was the son of Arthur Hewagama (grandson of Hewagamage H. Appuhamy) and Mabel Alexandria Wijesinghe Jayewardene, who was the cousin of Junius Richard Jayewardene, the President of Sri Lanka in the 1977 government. At the start of his career he presided over the court martial held in regard to the assassination attempt of Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranayake, the then Prime Minister, a coup planned within the Sri Lanka Army. He died in 2009.