Percy Colin-Thomé and the Composition of the Book People Inbetween-by Michael Roberts Source:Thuppahis Percy Colin-Thomé was born in Galle and his initial learning roots were at Richmond College. His genealogical roots derived from the Swiss personnel of the de Meuron Regiment in the service of the VOC in the 1790s who stayed on in Sri Lanka in British times when the colonial lands on the coast of Ceilao were taken over by the expanding imperial power known as Britain. These lineages became one strand in the mixed/race “Burgher” ethnic group in the island once the whole arena had been unified as colony by Britain between 1815 and 1818. Largely urban in background and increasingly English-speaking at home, these Burgher people became an influential segment of the local “middle-class” fulfilling intermediary roles in the British colonial service.[1] Calverley House verandah in Cinamon Gardens in the 20th century — an epitome of middle ...
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The Hegemony of Colombo from Way Back-by Michael Roberts After discovering the Lorenz letters in the library of Royal Asiatic Society in the 1980s I worked on the history of the island in the nineteenth century-and-thereafter with aid from Percy Colin-Thome and Ismeth Raheem in a book which appeared as People Inbetween under the imprint of Sarvodaya Book Publishing Services in 1989. One of its central themes is embodied in a chapter entitled “Colonial Transitions: The Development of Colombo’s Hegemonic Power.” As central supports in favour of this thesis, I drew on the knowledge and skills of personnel from the old Department of Geography at Peradeniya in the 960s who were teaching then in the 1980s in Colombo: namely, Kusuma Gunawardena and Percy Silva. ...
