ROYAL COLLEGE’S MAGNIFICENT GROUP OF 49 – by S D Sivapragasam

Source:Island

Upali Wijewardena entered Royal Primary at the age of five years when A F De Saa Bandaranayake was Head Master. Some of his classmates who joined the Kindergarten (Baby Class) were Dr. Ranjith de Silva (surgeon), Jayantha Gunasekera (Presidents Counsel), Dr. R S B Wickramasinghe (Former Director of the Medical Research Institute), Sarath Weerasooria (Chairman FINCO), Sam Samaranayake, Dr. N T de Silva, Dr. Tissa Cooray. Their teacher was Mrs. Keyt who looked after her wards as if they were her own children. Almost all of them had “ayahs” and there was a special enclosure for these chaperones.

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 St Thomas,’ Mt. Lavinia, Trinity College, Kandy, St Joseph’s and St Peter’s etc. all students were about 10-years old and they were examined mainly on general intelligence and general knowledge, English, Sinhalese and Arithmetic. Although Royal Prep bore the same name, there was no automatic entry to Royal College unlike several year before, and several years after.

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 were 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, have reached the zenith of their profession.

Royal College is indisputably the best school in the Island, or so Royalist claim. Parents clamour to get their children into Royal, but not all of them are lucky enough. Most think of other public schools as second best. Royal and S. Thomas’ are the most prestigious, like Eton and Harrow of England, their alumni like to think.

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, a product of Oxford University. Though the school was initially called the Colombo Academy, it came to be known later as Royal College. On the panels of the College Hall are the names of those who distinguished themselves in the field of intellect.

Also, in the College Hall hang 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 two heads of state – Sir John Kotalawala and President J.R. Jayewardene, while H. Sri Nissanka Q.C, a well known criminal lawyer and one of the founders of the SLFP also adorns the Hall panels.

Messers D.S.Sennanayake, Dudley Sennanayake and S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike were distinguished products of the school known by Royalists as “the other place”, namely, St Thomas’.

This batch being written about here 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 six entered the legal profession, two of them becoming President’s Counsel, two others becoming Judges of the Supreme Court, three 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 Van den Driesen, Gamini Goonetilake, S.R.Ratnapala, whilst some of the well known physicians are Henry Rajaratnam, J.B.Pieris, Gamini Jayakuru, Brendon Gooneratne, the latter distinguishing himself in Australia. His wife, Yasmine Gooneratne, a Professor of English in Australia, has several publications to her credit Another wife of a member of the 49 Group is Professor Lalitha Mendis, who reached the pinnacle of the medical profession. She was the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, and the Director of the Post Graduate Institute of Medicine. She is the wife of the late Dr Lalith Mendis.

The other physicians are, Danilo de Kretser, Tissa Cooray (WHO), 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 two 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 became Judges of the Supreme Court, whilst A.Balachandran worked in the UN. 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.

Harsha Wickremasinghe, D.G.P.Seneviratne and Dr B.S.Wijeweera entered the prestigious Ceylon Civil Service.

Of the Engineers that come to mind are Professor C.L.V.Jayatilake (a Vice Chancellor of Peradeniya), Dr Susantha Goonetilake , S.C.Amarasinghe (former GM of the Electricity Board), Dr Sri Bhavan Sri Skandarajah – Sri Bhavan in May 2013 staged a six 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 Chelvanayakam Vaseeharan, a maths prodigy, who was to be appointed Professor of Mathematics.

In this class, were two 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 Bachelors 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. If he had not joined the Police, surely he would have been on the other side of the Law! That was none other than Rahula de Silva. It is reported that he was charged in several cases of violence. In all these cases he was successfully defended gratis, by his classmate Jayantha Gunasekera, a well known criminal lawyer.

There is the very talented Artist Laki Senanayake , who worked with Geoffrey Bawa, whilst A.A.Wijetunga and K.Sivapragasam became Senior Assessors in the Inland Revenue Dept. K.L.Gooneratne is a talented Archtitect.

Late Bimal Padameperuma functioned as Chairman State Engineering Corp, and D.C. Wimalasena was Chairman,Petroleum Corp.

T.D.S.A. Dissanayake ,a prolific writer, first served in the U.N. Later he was our Ambassador in Indonesia.

There were two members of this Group to whom life was a ball! They were Aru Sellamuttu and Ranjit Kiriella. Nimalasiri Fonseka, a bright spark in school, lives the life of a Squire in England. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant.

Lionel Almeida and the late Tyrrel Muttiah took to planting, and were ruggerites. The late W.K.N. de Silva was a propriety planter. Bobby Perera, was one time Director of Quickshaws. Mahinda Gunasekera who is permanently domiciled in Canada, does much for our country by countering false propaganda.

These classmates are a very close knit family, though half of them live overseas… The 49 Group, depleted as it is, gets together, definitely during the Royal-Thomian cricket encounter and the Bradby shield. Sometimes they meet more often, to welcome members coming home from abroad, for some reason or another.

It is at such gatherings that they reminisce about their schooldays, some wild and some even wilder! Only the pleasantest memories remain, and old yarns are told and retold, with salt and pepper added too! It is amazing that there isn’t a tinge of jealousy, and each one is proud of the other’s achievement. 

Masters then came to teach, in full suit (coat and tie, mind you),and some driving their own cars. They instilled into this impressionable Group of youngsters all that Royal stood for; so much so that even today, they instinctively take the acceptable course of action in any matter.

As the College song goes, “They learned of books and learned of men, and learned to play the game” being absolutely fair minded, in their dealings in later life.

 S D Sivapragasam

A loyal Royalist.