Probably the oldest photo of Royal College students – by Rudra De Zoysa
Form VA ROYAL COLLEGE 1910. This is one of the oldest photographs of Royal College. My father, Roland de Zoysa is standing, last row, second from left.
I got a bit more information about the personalities in the picture from my brother Nilkanth who is a custodian of many facts about RCC. Next to my father to his right is a guy called Poulier. I believe his son was one- or two-years senior to us at College. In the centre is the Form Master, Mr. Vollenhoven who was affectionately called Papa Vollenhoven. Papa Vollenhoven’s son played cricket for RCC in the 1930s or 1940s and toured with the first schoolboy team ever to go overseas (to Australia). To the right of Papa Vollenhoven is one Mr. Thiagarajah who ended up being the Chairman of the Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Ceylon. There are Malays, Indonesians, Sinhalese, an Englishman and Tamils in the class – so where is the so called ‘discrimination’? Anyway, see how smartly all of them are dressed.
