Pelham Juriansz Archives

eLanka Newsletter – 5 Aug – 2nd edition – Sri Lankans in Australia Click here or on the image below to read this week’s elanka Newsletter Pandemic Relief Donation Work For Covid-19 – WE CARE HUMANITY “INDIAN SUMMER ” – By Des Kelly Sri Lankan refugee makes desperate plea for freedom, stuck in a Brisbane hotel room – By peter bugden Royal College Old Boys in Australia Association – FLOREAT MAGAZINE – May 2020 Where have all the Burghers gone? – By Pelham Juriansz Victoria Schools – Enrolment Guide – July 2020 A Biographical Anecdote: Being a Perera: “What’s in a Name…?” by KKS PERERA Health & Views – July 1st Issue – by Harold Gunatillake Thomians beat Royalists in a clean sweep at the OBA Battle of the Blues 2020 House System at St. Peter’s College – by Algi Wijewickrema The Royal College Cricket Team 1984 – You can ...

Where have all the Burghers gone? – By Pelham Juriansz The word “Burgher” is a very strange word indeed. In fact some might wonder at my name wondering if I am some sort of “Sudda(white man), having a strange foreign name. The name Jansz is a more familiar name but not Juriansz. Then people are familiar with the names of Brohier, Muller, Ludowyke, etc, because of R.L. Brohier, Carl Muller and Professor E.F.C. Ludowyke, all of whom are distinguished writers. As the Dictionary mentions, the word “burgher” means citizen-derived from the word “Burgh” of “Borough”. But, few people are aware that it has a racial connotation- that it refers to descendants of European settlers in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon. In the European Middle Ages, a burgher was any freeman of a burgh or borough; or any inhabitant of a borough, a person who lives in town. (Even in modern German the word ...