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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,’ ...