History of Royal College Crest – By Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam
(Excerpts from the book History of Royal College published in 1981)
Royal College crest serves to identify the school from other schools and gives a seal and significance to documentation. However it had not been mentioned in any writing prior to 1892. As Ceylon was crown colony of the British Empire, the imperial emblem – The Lion and the Unicorn was the badge of the country. As Royal College, then known as Colombo Academy, was a government educational institute, it had to use the British Royal Arms. The first display of Royal crest was in the first College magazine of 1893. Subsequently there had been alterations made to Royal crest in 1910 and 1912.
In 1922, the government sanctioned the issue of the new crest in place of the one used in the past. Description of the crest is as follows : “ Eliptical shield with the motto Disce Aut Discede round the edge. The shield is surmounted by the word Floreat on a scroll, which is in turn surmounted by the crown. Within the shield are an elephant and a palm tree. Laurel wreaths are seen on right and left of the shield and separated from it. Initials RC are at the base where the two wreaths neatly meet”. In 1956 a change was made by replacing the British crown with the crown of the Kandyan Kingdom.
For the approved design of Royal College crest in use, the school is indebted to Mrs. F.D.Wijesinghe.
