Royal College

Upali Wijewardena entered Royal Primary at the age of 5yrs when A F De Saa Bandaranayake was Head Master. Some of his classmates who joined the Kindergarten (Baby Class) along with Upali were Dr. Ranjith de Silva (surgeon), Jayantha Gunasekera (Presidents Counsel), Dr. R S B Wickramasinghe (Former Director of the Medical Research Institute), Sarath Weerasuriya (Chairman FINCO), Sam Samaranayake, Dr. N T de Silva, Dr. Tissa Cooray. Their teacher was Mrs. Keyt.  

In 1949 a Group of 96 students were successful in gaining entrance to Royal College having sat an open competitive exam. About 60 of them, were from Royal Prep, while the balance were from other schools such as S. Thomas’ Mt. Lavinia, Trinity College Kandy, St Joseph’s and St Peter’s etc. All students were about 10 year old and they were examined mainly on general intelligence and general knowledge, English, Sinhalese and Arithmetic. 

The Head Master of Royal Prep was A F De Saa Bandaranayake, while the Principal of Royal College was J C A Corea - the first Ceylonese Principal. Initially, most of these boys did not take studies seriously as a large number was from affluent families, being children of professionals, but once they got into their respective disciplines, there was no turning back. Quite a number of them reached the zenith of their professions. 

Royal College is indisputably the best school in the island.  All parents clamour to get their children into this school at Reid Avenue.  Royal and S.Thomas’ (Mt. Lavinia) are the most prestigious schools; like Eton and Harrow of England.

Royal was founded in 1835 by the then British Colonial Government, mainly for the education of the sons of the Britishers, under the Principalship of Dr Barcroft Boake.  Though the school was initially called the Colombo Academy it came to be known later as Royal College.  

Also, in the College Hall hangs the portraits of those who rendered yeoman service to our country.  Some amongst them are C.A. Lorenz KC, the Acting Queen”s Advocate, Sir Ponnambalam  Ramanathan Acting Attorney General and his brother Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam of the Ceylon Civil Service, Dr C.A. Hewavitharne  and his sibling Anagarika Dharmapala.  Of the Politicians of recent times were 2 heads of state – Sir John Kotalawala and President J.R. Jayawardene, while  H. Sri Nissanka Q.C, a well known criminal lawyer and one of the founders of the SLFP also adorns the Hall.

This batch came to be called the 49 Group.  According to statistics compiled, it is perhaps the best batch that Royal turned out in recent times.  It is said that 32 of them became medical doctors (most of them consultants) while 6 entered the legal profession (2 of them becoming President’s Counsel), 2 others becoming Judges of the Supreme Court, 3 entered the Ceylon Civil Service and 18 became Engineers. It is estimated that about 68% of this Group became professionals, but while in school, each one of them fought for the last place in class!  But when they commenced their respective disciplines they shone over the products of other schools.

Some surgeons of the 49 Group are, Ranjit de Silva – who captained Royal at cricket, Priya Samarasinghe, Geoff Vanden Driesen,Gamini Goonethilake, S.R.Ratnapala. Some of the well known physicians are, Henry Rajaratnam, J.B.Pieris, Gamini Jayakuru, Brendon Gooneratne, the latter distinguishing himself in Australia.  

The other physicians are, Danilo de Kretser, Tissa Cooray (W.H.O.),  N.T. de Silva (UK), H.S.Karunasekera (UK), Leslie Muthukuda (UK), Dan Perimpanayagam, Yasa Rajapakse (UK), Disampathy Subasinghe (UK), V.Dharmapalan (New Zealand), and the late R.S.B. Wickremasinghe – who was the Director of  the  M.R.I.
Of those who took to Law, are 2 well known President’s Counsel Jayantha Gunasekera  (former Secretary of the Bar Association) and the late Chula de Silva.  Two other lawyers S.W.B. Wadugodapitiya and P. Edussuriya ended up as Judges of the Supreme Court, whilst  A.Balachandran  worked in the U.N.  T.K.N.Thilakan (District Judge) and Kumar Ponnambalam both died a few years ago. Alavi Mohamed, a Barrister also died several years ago. M.N.B. Pieris is a civil lawyer, in Colombo. 

Of the Engineers that come to mind are Professor C.L.V.Jayathilake (a Vice Chancellor of Peradeniya), Dr Susantha Goonethilake , S.C.Amarasinghe (former GM of the Electricity Board), Dr Sri Bhavan Sri Skandarajah – Sri Bhavan in May 2013 staged a 6 day fast in Canada in support of the LTTE diaspora (TGTE), H.S.B. Abeysundara (Chemical Engineer), L.H.Meegama, C.Ramachandran and Bandula Yatawara.
Perhaps the cleverest of them all was Chelvanayagam  Vaseeharan, a maths prodigy, who was to be appointed  Professor of Mathematics.

In this class, were 2 leading businessmen, namely the Cambridge educated Upali Wijewardene of the Upali Group, and, Lal Jayasundera, Chairman of Hayleys. Ratna Sivaratnam headed another conglomerate – Aitken Spence, whilst K.Manikkavasagar was a Director of Glaxo.  Arjuna Hullugalle and Upatissa Attygalle are successful businessmen.

 V.H.Nanayakkara and P.H.J.S.Ariyapala both Batchelors of Science, joined the Staff of Royal College.
There was one member of the 49 Group who distinguished himself as a clever investigator in the Police Force.  That was none other than Rahula Silva.

There is the very talented Artist Laki Senanayake , who worked with Geoffrey Bawa.
Lionel Almeida and the late Tyrrel Muttiah took to planting, and were ruggerites.  
These classmates are a very close knit family, though half of them live overseas.
S D Sivapragasam (A loyal Royalist)