Ratnayake was born on 3 April 1933, in Hatton, Ceylon. He was the fourth son of Mudianselage Marshal Ratnayake and Rossyln Paranavitanage. He had four siblings; Willy, Wimala, Edwin and Lal, former DIG. Ratnayake was an exceptionally talented student, athlete, boxer and cadet at Ananda College.
Career
Journalism and writing
Initially he started work at the Bank of Ceylon, he later left to pursue his passion, which was writing. He joined Lake House, as a journalist for the Ceylon Daily News. Premil worked along side the likes of Mervyn de Silva, who was the editor of the Lake House, Willie de Alwis, D. B. Dhanapala and Christie Seneviratne. Ratnayake was a skilled writer and could speak Sinhalese, Tamil and Hindi. In March 1970, Premil covered the historic event of the arrival of the Apollo 12 mission crew, for the Ceylon Daily News, part of a 20-nation goodwill tour, to celebrate the successful voyage to and back from the moon. Apollo 12 was the second spaceflight to land men on the moon, consisting ofCharles "Pete" Conrad Jr., Richard F. Gordon Jr., and Alan L. Bean, visited Ceylon. The crew was welcomed by the then Minister of State, J. R. Jayewardene, US AmbassadorAndrew Corry, and the Mayor of Colombo, Vincent Perera.
Later, on invitation from Lalith Athulathmudali, Ratnayake joined the Ministry of Trade and Shipping, to handle publicity for the Ministry. The government then sent him to Bonn, Germany, as First Secretary, for Press and Information in 1984.
Post Retirement
After retiring, Ratnayake returned to Lake House, to write for The Daily News briefly. Since he was a writer and journalist belonging to the old world order, he didn't fancy writing on computers, and managed to get himself the only typewriter left at the Lake House as he simply says "To hell with the modernity, the scuttling mouse. All this sophisticated hi-fi gadgetry nauseates me and threatens to kill my journalistic creativity. Give me the typewriter any day – I am like an orphan child re-united with his mother. To be true I detest the computer. Only the typewriter can instil in me the desire to write. Its touch the loving caress, inspires me. Maybe I am naive and old-fashioned but I am me and I am in love with the old mistress."
