Royal College, Colombo Totally Explained

Everything about Royal College Colombo totally explained

The Royal College Colombo (commonly known as Royal) was founded in January 1835. It is considered to be the leading Public School in Sri Lanka. It is a National School, meaning that it's controlled by the central government as opposed to the Provincial Council and provides both primary and secondary education.
Royal College has produced many distinguished personalities, including 2 Presidents of two countries, a Sultan, three Prime Ministers and countless number of intellectuals.

History

The school was founded by the Rev. Joseph Marsh, the acting Colonial Chaplain at St. Paul's Church as the Hill Street Academy in January 1835, as a private institution with 20 students, mainly from the upper class Burgher community situated at Hill Street, Pettah. In January 4, 1836, the British Governor of Ceylon Sir Robert Wilmot-Horton, converted it, as the Colombo Academy, into a public school modeled on Eton College, with Marsh continuing as Head master. The oldest Public School on the island with the governor as its patron, it was intended to give to the children of leading Ceylonese an education which would make them fit to be citizens of the British Empire. In July 1836 the school was moved to San Sebastian Hill, Pettah, it would stay there for another 75 years before being shifted to Thurstan Road.
   In 1859 it was renamed Colombo Academy and Queens College and affiliated to the University of Oxford. In 1865 the Morgan Committee of inquiry into education recommended that it be reorganized and that scholarships should be awarded to study in Oxford. It became the Colombo Academy once again in 1869.
   In 1881 it was renamed Royal College with the royal consent from Her Majesty Queen Victoria. The Gazette Notification giving Her Majesty Queen Victoria's approval to change the name of the school was appeared on July 31, 1881. With the introduction of free education in Ceylon in 1931 Royal stopped charging fees from its students thus proving education free of charge to this day. The school was originally at Maradana, right next to Hulftsdorp, but moved to San Sebastian, Pettah and then in 27 August 1913 the school was moved to its new building at Thurstan Road which is now the main building of the University of Colombo. Ten years later on 10th October 1923 the school moved once again, this time to the newly built Victorian styled building on Reid Avenue, which it still occupies. This move was due the suggestion made by a higher education committee in 1914, witch suggested that Royal College should be converted in to a University College. Due to the objections made by members of the Royal College Old Boys Union, especially by the speeches made by Frederick Dornhorst KC, the Governor of Ceylon Lord Chalmers instead created a separate University College named University College Colombo, at the schools former premises which became the University of Colombo in the later years.
   In 1940 the school was again on the move this time due to the start of World War II in the far east. The school was ordered to move out and the British Army moved in establishing a military hospital in the school buildings. Principal E.L. Bradby made sure the education of the students was carried on unhindered by moving the students in to four private villas (known as bungalows in Ceylon) at Turret Street, Colombo and shifting the 1-3 forms to Glendale bungalow in Bandarawela where it was till 1948. After the war the school was relocated to its old home on Ried Avenue, Colombo. In August 1977 the Royal College Preparatory School was amalgamated to Royal College forming the school's primary school, with it came the county's only national theatre at the time the Navarangahala.

The College today

Today the school educates close to 7500 students in both secondary and primary education. To accomplish this task the school is fully equipped with all the required facilities such as lecture halls, science & computer laboratories, auditoriums etc. This includes the 'College Hall' and the Navarangahala which is a national theatre. The school is divided in to three sections for administrative purposes, these are the primary school (the former Royal College Preparatory School), middle school and the upper school, each coming under a deputy principal (the head of the primary school is know as the Headmaster/Headmistress). For many years the school has maintained an excellent academic record with its students archiving the highest grades at all national exams held annually. The main medium of education at Royal had been English, however with Sinhala becoming the official language along with Tamil the medium of education was changed to Sinhala and Tamil. Since 2002 English as been reintroduced as a medium of education at Royal. Students may select one of the three mediums to conduct their studies in.
The first hostel of the Colombo Academy was established in San Sebastian in 1868, establishing Royal as one of the first boarding schools in Sri Lanka. Since then the school has maintained an hostel for students from out side Colombo.
Sport is a major part of Royal College since the olden days. Therefore the school has developed its sports infrastructure to the finest standards. These includes a swimming pool, Tennis courts, indoor cricket nets and an international level sports complex for several types of sports. The sports complex built in 2000 hosts many national and school sporting events all year round.

Houses

The students are divided into five Houses:

Marsh
Boake
Hartley
Harward
Reed

The names are derived from distinguished past headmasters and principals of Royal College. The houses compete annually in all major games to win the respective inter-house games. This is a great opportunity for young royalists to enhance their skills.

Awards

At present there are 165 Endowed Prizes and Awards. The College Main Hall carries the names of those students who have won the prestigious Panel Prizes. The most coveted prize of Royal is the Dornhorst Memorial Prize, awarded to the most popular student each year in the memory of Frederick Dornhorst KC. Followed by the Lalith Athulathmudali Memorial Prize for the most outstanding Royalist of the year. Prizes are awarded at the annual prize-giving under the patronage of the President of Sri Lanka (earlier under the patronage of the Governor of Ceylon).
The Royal Crown, is the most prestigious award a sportsman can achieve at Royal, awarded each year at the Colours Night to a sportsman who has made outstanding achievements in their field of sports while Colours are awarded to other players who have made significant contributions in the sporting arena. Other prestigious prizes includes,

The President's Prize. (formally the Governor General's prize and earlier The Governor's prize)

Turnour Prize. (awarded since 1846)

Lorensz Scholarship.

Steward's Prize.

Principal's Scholarship.

E L Bradby - J C A Corea Prize.

J R Jayawardena Memorial Prize.

Sir James Peiris Memorial Prize.

Lalith Athulathmudali Memorial Prize.

Maalin Dias Sports Scholarship.

Sports

Sport is a major part of Royal College, with over 21 different sports played. Royal has a long & colourful history in sports with the annual Royal-Thomian cricket match, the Bradby Shield Encounter and the Regatta taking center stage.
Other sports played at Royal includes;

Athletics

Badminton

Baseball

Basketball

Boxing

Chess

Cricket

Cycling

Gymnastics

Hockey

Karate

Rowing

Rugby Football

Soccer

Squash

Swimming/Diving

Table Tennis

Tennis

Volleyball

Water Polo

Wushu

Royal-Thomian

Cricket was played at the school from 1838 onwards. The annual cricket match against S. Thomas' College, Mt Lavinia is the second longest uninterrupted cricket match series in the world. Only second to the Ashes series played between England and Australia. The original match was played between the Colombo Academy and St Thomas' College in 1879, with schoolmasters participating as well as schoolboys. From 1880 onwards, only schoolboys were allowed to play in the match.
Until 2006 the tally stands with both schools winning 33 each and 61 drawn. This is regarded as the most prestigious cricketing event in the country. This is also preceded by the legendary Cycle Parade which usually happens on the day before the big match, with the official objective of visiting the captain's house to encourage him.

Royal-Trinity Bradby Shield Encounter

The annual rugby encounter against friendly rival Trinity College, Kandy is the Blue Riband of schools' rugby in Sri Lanka. In fact, it's one of the highlights in the Sri Lankan high society calendar. Rugby was first introduced at Royal in 1916, and the first historic match against Trinity was played in 1920. The Bradby Shield itself was first presented in 1945 by the departing Principal of Royal College, E. L. Bradby. Since 1945, two matches have taken place each year, one up in Kandy and the other down in Colombo. The Shield is awarded to the school that gets the highest aggregate of points in the two match series.
The 2002 Bradby encounter was the highest scoring encounter for Royal, Led by Zulki Hamid. Winning a record (39-00) in first leg held in Colombo & The winning the second leg (44-00) in Kandy. Thus winning the Bradby Shield with a record aggregate of 83 - 00.
The 2007 Bradby first leg was won by Royal (20 - 12) in Kandy. The second leg was also won by Royal (15 - 11) in Colombo. Thus Royal wins the Bradby for 2007 the with an aggregate of 35 - 23.

Royal-Thomian Regatta

The Royal-Thomian Regatta is the annual regatta between Royal College and S. Thomas' College, Mt Lavinia. The Boat Race which is a coxed fours event initially began in 1962 and by 1966, it broadened out to give rise to the regatta having a card of six events, made up of 2 Single Sculls, 2 Coxless Pairs and 2 Coxed Fours which the 'Boat Race' is the most prestigious. The events take place at the Beira lake (alongside the Colombo Rowing Club) in Colombo around October each year with the T. N. Fernando Trophy awarded to the overall winner.
In 2007, under the captaincy of Maalik Aziz, Royal won the regatta with a record 40 points to nil, for the first time in its illustrious history. The Royal College Crew created many new records including a new record for the Boat Race with a timing of 3 mins 11 secs elapsing the previous record of 3mins 19secs.

Clubs and societies

At Royal College there's much encouragement for the formation of institutions of extracurricular activities since its early days. This was marked with starting of the college magazine and the library in 1837. Today there are over 60 clubs and societies of different kinds.
Some of these are;

Adventure Club

Association for Ethnic Harmony

Agriculture Society

Archaeological Society

Architects' Society

Art Circle

Astronomical Society

Aviation Society

Buddhist Brotherhood

Catholic Students Union

Commerce Society

Computer Society

Debaters' Council

Discussion Forum

English Drama Society

English Literary Association

Environment Conservation Society

Film Society

General Knowledge Society

Hindu Students Union

Historical Society

I*earn

Insurance Society

Interact Club

Islamic Society

Japanese Society

Junior Sinahala Literary Association

Leo Club

Library Readers Association[[http://rclra.net]

Mass Media Unit

Mathematics Society

National Savings Bank

Oriental Music Society

Philatelic Club

Photography Society

Political Science Society

Radio Club (External Link

)

Red Cross Society

Science Association

Scrabble Club

Seylan Bank

Sinhala Drama Society

Sinhala Literary Association

Sinhala Oratory and Debating Society

SIPSA

Social Services League

Student Christian Movement

Tamil Debaters' Council

Tamil Dramatic Society

Tamil Karnartic Music Society

Tamil Literary Association

Temperence Society

United Nations Club

Western Music Society

Wildlife Protection Society

Young Biologist's Society

Young Inventor's Club

Young Zoologists Association

Youth Services Association

Past Principals and Head Masters of Royal

Head Masters

The Reverend J.H. Marsh (Snr) MA(Edin) 1835 - 1838

J. Brooke H. Bailey (acting) 1839 - 1842

The Reverend A. Kessen 1842

Principals

J.F. Haslam BA(Cantab) 1839 - 1840

The Reverend Dr Barcroft Boake BA(Dublin), DD(Dublin) 1842 - 1870

George Todd BA(Oxon), I.S.O 1871 - 1878

J.B. Cull MA(Oxon) 1878 - 1890

J.H. Marsh (Jnr) MA(Edin) 1890 - 1892

J.H. Harward MA(Oxon) 1892 - 1902

C. Hartley MA(Cantab) 1903 - 1919

Major H.L. Reed MC, BA(Cantab) 1920 - 1932

L.H.W. Sampson BA(Oxon), FRGS 1932 - 1938

E.L. Bradby MA(Oxon) 1939 - 1945

J.C.A. Corea MA(Lond), Dip Ed(Psychology)(Cantab) 1946 - 1953

D.K.G. de Silva BSc(Lond), Dip Ed(Cey) 1954 - 1966

B.G. Premaratne BA(Lond), MA (NY TTC) 1967 - 1971

D.G. Welikala BSc(Lond) 1971 - 1972

D.J.N. Seneviratne BSc(Lond), MA(Colombia), F.G.TRD, Cert(Cey)(History) 1972

L.D.H. Peiris BSc(Lond), Dip Ed(Cey) 1972 - 1980

C.T.M. Fernando BA(Lond), Cert Ed(Cey), Cert Ed. Adm.(Edin) 1981 - 1986

B. Suriyaarachchi BA(Cey), Dip Ed 1986 - 1994

S.H. Kumarasinghe BA(Cey), Dip Ed 1994 - 1997

H.L.B. Gomes BA(Pera), Dip Ed, Cert Ed. Mgt. 1997 - 2003

H.A. Upali Gunasekera BSc(Pera), Dip Ed - 2003 - To date

Past Head Masters of Royal College Preparatory School/Royal Junior School

H.S. Perera 1933 - 1947

A.F. De Saa Banadaranaike 1947 - 1958

H.D. Sugathapala 1958 - 1970

H.P. Jayawardena 1970 - 1975

E.S. Wijesuriya 1975 - 1977

Mrs H.G. Nanayakkara 1977 The Royal Junior School and Royal College were amalgamated as one school under a single Principal in August 1977.

Notable Masters

Andrew Nicholl R.H.A.

E.C. Gunasekera

Vijitha Weerasinghe

M.T Thambapillai

D.C.H. Cooray

Regi Siriwardena

R. I. T. Alles

Lionel Ranwala

Bvt. Lt. Colonel M.K.J. Cantlay ED, JP

W.A Wickramasena

Old Royalists

Main Article: List of Old Royalists Past students of Royal College are referred to as Old Royalists. The school has produced the first Executive President of Sri Lanka, the last Sultan of the Maldives and also three Prime Ministers.
The following is list of well-known Old Royalists:

List of Old Royalists

Royal viewed using Google Earth

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Trivia

The Royal College Union which is the schools old boys association, was established in 1891 and is the oldest such alumni association in Sri Lanka.

On the May 22 1972 Sri Lanka was proclaimed a Republic at the Navarangahala in Royal College.

Royal had the first Cadet Battalion to be formed in a school in Ceylon in 1881, attached to the Ceylon Light Infantry. Later named the Royal College Volunteer Corps, it was renamed as the Royal College Cadet Corps.

In 2007 Royal was one of two schools to establish the first Air Force Cadet platoons in Sri Lanka.

References & Further reading

History of Royal College, by Mr S.S. Perera

The Royal College 'School of our Fathers', A brief history and the essence of its spirit, by Mr D.L. SeneviratneFurther Information

Get more info on 'Royal College Colombo'.

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