Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan Archives

168th birth anniversary of Sir Thomas de Sampayo-By D r. Punsara Amarasinghe Source:Sundayobserver The grandeur of the legal profession in this country and its related rich traditions have mainly derived from the British. The inception of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka dates back to 1801 and the establishment of the apex court was legitimated by King George the Third under the Royal Charter of Justice to preserve and uphold the British sense of justice, which strictly prohibited the cruel mode of punishments. Sir Thomas de Samapyo After the acquisition of the Kandyan kingdom in 1815, the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was extended to the whole island and the adoption of the charter of justice as a subsequent effect of Coolbrook-Cameron reforms in 1833 bolstered the development of the legal profession in Sri Lanka under British. ...

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,’ ...