Rock House Army Camp
The base gains its name from the Rock House, a stately home built in the nineteenth century by Henry Augustus Marshall, an Englishmen who accompanied Lord North who was the first British Governor of Ceylon. Marshall was an officer in the Ceylon Civil Service and went on to serve as Auditor General of Ceylon. He built Rock House in addition to his other houses Whist Bungalow and Modera House. Later it became the residence of Sir William Coke, the Chief Justice of Ceylon.
The estate was taken over by the British Army during World War II, it was occupied by the newly formed Ceylon Army after Ceylon gained independence in 1948. In 1957 the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron moved in and was made a full recce regiment in 1958. There by the 1st Reconnaissance Regiment became the first unit of the Ceylon Armoured Corps. Since the 1960s the unit provided armored units for the defence of the capital in crisis situations and civil unrest.
