British Colonial Archives

A BRITISH COLONIAL IN CEYLON THE LIFE OF GARRY SHATTOCK. – By HUGH KARUNANAYAKE Edgar Charles Evan Shattock known to family and friends as Garry, was born to a family long associated with Ceylon “s Mercantile Sector. Lee Hedges and Co founded in 1857 by WD Lee and JR Hedges was a plantation management company By 1880 the brother of the founding partner GAM Hedges became the sold partner. In 1896 Ernest Mark Shattock was taken as a partner of the firm.and by 1911 he was the sole partner having acquired the interests of his co-partner A.A. Hankey. Ernest Mark Shattock married Mabel, the daughter of Evan Byrde of the Ceylon Civil Service, a man reputed for his proficiency in the Sinhalese language. Mabel and Ernest lived in Colombo where through 15 years the couple had six children of whom Garry was the youngest. The children were educated partly in ...

Adam’s Bridge – indicating a primordial bond – By Arundathie Abeysinghe A chain of pale gold limestone shoals that stretch between *Mannar Island, off the Northwestern coast of Sri Lanka and Rameswaram, off the Southeastern coast of Tamil Nadu indicate an ancient connection between Sri Lanka and India by land. According to chronicles, during the British Colonial Era, the British had named this chain of limestone shoals as “Adam’s Bridge” after the theistic legend regarding *Adam, the first man on the Earth. The British were of the view that Adam had used this bridge to reach *Adam’s Peak. The Bridge is also known as “Rama’s Bridge” or “Ram Setu”. The Indian epic *Ramayana has also described a bridge over the ocean connecting India with Sri Lanka. According to the epic the credit of constructing the Bridge is attributed to the ape army that was assisting *Rama in his war ...