Patrick Kodikara obituary

Patrick Kodikara, who has died aged 82, spent four decades working in senior social services roles across London, and was appointed as the UK’s first black director of social services – in Camden – in 1983.He was born in Negombo in Sri Lanka to Gregory Kodikara, a tax collector, and his wife, Gladys (nee Fonseka), a housewife. Following schooling at St Joseph’s college in Colombo he came to England in 1961 on a scholarship to study social work at the London School of Econ