Trinity Collage

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SRI LAN

Above: P rofessor S enaka Bibile co m m em o ratio n stam p - first day o f issue 2 9 .9 . 2006. Below: M ichael Kagwa (centre) w ith his friends from
the A sian com m unity in U ganda.

TRINITY

survive together, to share even your problems. W hen you are in a spot you own up or
stand up for each other.” Me emphasises that the spirit o f camaraderie learnt at Trinity
has held him in good stead even today. Referring to his visit to Jaffna, as C h ief G uest at
the opening ceremony o f the Jaffna C ourt, he says; “I am the only senior G overnm ent
officer who can go to Jaffna and come back unharm ed. I never think o f a person as a
‘Tam il’. W h en I had to declare open the C ourt and the President asked me w hether I
should go, I told him, ‘I f som ething happened to me that is the end o f the m atter for
me.’A t Trinity we learnt to relate to others.”

Speaking about the Trinity product. C h ief Justice Silva says, “T rinity did not instil the
killer instinct in us. It was never there even in our sports where w inning was not life or
death. Maybe you are out o f the top slots. N o Trinitian has been a President or a Prime
M inister and we won’t produce huge empire builders, not even in the commercial sector.
We produce trustworthy team -mates, not leaders with killer instincts who will destroy
their opponents.”

C h ief Justice Silva is also one o f Sri Lanka’s forem ost proponents o f B uddhism and
his public presence as a speaker w ith an in -d ep th knowledge o f the D ham m a, o f the
Buddhist texts, is now m uch respected. H e says while he did not learn B uddhism as
a subject at Trinity, it was T rinity th at gave him the ability to “th in k freely”. H e adds,
“there was absolutely no effort to influence our thinking, no attem pt to convert, and we
were never discriminated against. W e had a sense o f independent free thinking instilled
in us at Trinity.” A t a tim e o f unprecedented political upheavals and crises in Sri Lanka,
‘Trinity Values’could not be playing a more crucial role in the life o f the individual who
could change the course of events in the country.

Throughout the history o f the school and the country, in the face o f every crisis,Trinitians
ranging from ‘national figures’to ‘unknow n T rinitians’ have honoured Fraser’s legacy.
They have displayed that sportsmanship never ends because leather and flannel have
been put aside.

2 4 Ihc a u th o r ow es th e p h rase ‘u n k n o w n 'IV initian” to U pali R a tn a y ak e w h o used it to d escrib e th e th o u sa n d s o f T r in itia i
who continue to honour the scliool spirit hut rem ain unheard of.

OK IM,A\TNO-|TK,l.l)S A N D KAI R I’ LAY

C h ie fJustice N cU lle S aniarakoon R ight: C h iefju stice S arath N . Silva

“Lingering Bradby Memories”'

In th is ex cerp t fro m M o h a m e d M u s h in ’s article to th e D aily N e w s o f Sri L an k a, M u sh in
recounts the heroics o f a player from the glorious year o f 1956:

.... The fam ous T rin ity side o f 1956 had m any a celebrity, b u t M . O dayar, the full
back, was the darling o f the frenetic rugby fans in Kandy. I le was about the only
ruggerite in those days w ho wore soccer boots and took conversions at goal with
an unconventional in-step. A s his straight com bed hair used to bounce back to
im pede his vision, he sought protection by wearing a hair-net. In one m atch, he had
m issed a tackle and earned the w rath o f the strict disciplinarian M ajor Tlieodorc de
Silva, w h o w ith ch aracteristic invective, s a id ,“M . O d a y a r d o n ’t play like a M odaya!”
The affable O dayar took it in good spirit, and the return Bradby shield encounter
brought the best out o f this gutty ruggerite: he fractured his collar bone in the first
half, b u t as su b stitution o f players was n o t perm itted then, O dayar continued to
play. A n d w h a t is m ore, a t one stage o f play, he fielded th e ball w ith th e injured arm
and dealt a w ard-off w ith the other.

M ushin, M ohatnccl. l.ingering Bradby Memories, D aily N ew s. A N C L , C olom bo, Juno 1995,

VI

Their Exits and their Entrances

M r David Paynter and his talented company o f actors covered themselves
with glory by their excellent production o f H am let. The play was carefully
edited and adapted to suit the requirements o f the M odern Stage and to
meet the needs o f the M odern theatre-goer. The Kandy audiences were
greatly im pressed...Two performances were given in Colombo, at the
central Y.M .C.A ., both attracting packed and very appreciative houses. The
press notices were very flattering.

Trinity College Magazine 1933, Vol. N o '

IT IS SAID TH A T H am let, the Prince o f D enm ark had a m anic look in his eyes that
year. H e had walked across the stage, dressed in flowing cape and striking theatrical garh,
a ravaged m an m aking his way thorough his inner dilem m a w hether ‘to be or not to be.’
Shakespeare’s famous soliloquy came alive at A ll Island Inter-school Shakespeare Drama
Competition in 2004. The part was played by Aslam M arika in T rinity’s production for
the C om petition. H e brought the fated Prince to life.

“We liked the way he portrayed the torture th at was taking place in H am let’s m ind and
how he brought it out. A nd his perform ance was consistent”, says Feroze Kamardeen,
Artistic D irector o f Stage Light and Magic’ w ho sat on the panel o f judges at the semi­
finals o f the C om petition. M arika received the trophy for the Best A ll Island Actor that
year. For Trinity, the award came back to the school after 16 years. That year T rinity also
won the Best All Island School Award at the C om petition after 23 years. The following

Kam ;irdccn, Fcrozc: A uthor interview in D ecem ber, 2007.

104

Above: A scene from the “T e m p e st” w ith (from left to rig h t) C hula U nam buw a, Ivor G eddes and A rjuna A luvihara.

T R IN IT Y

year Trinity came in as third runners up for its perform ance o fJulius Caesar, and M arika
received the award for Best Actor (O ut Station Schools) for his portrayal of Brutus. In
2003 M arika had been nom inated for Best A ctor for his part as lago in the school’s
production o f Othello. For three years consecutively. Trinity won the award for the Best
O ut-station School at the All Island Inter-school Shakespeare Dram a Com petition.

Today, M arika is in N ew D elhi, studying Film F d itin g and D irecting at the M arw a
Studios and will com plete a degree in Journalism and M edia at Punjab Technical
University. H e says:

I hope to be a film -m aker. To me, film is a com bination o f all art form s and
learning it is m ost exciting, and m ost o f all I love to tell a story my way. I
still love theatre and hope to go on w ith it later, after I ’ve com pleted my
course. M r. Rod G ilbert our Principal once told me, “Learn to say sorry and
never end it with a B U T ” These are words that I will always cherish. They
taught me to be humble and responsible.^

A love o f theatre, dram a and the fine arts is integral to life at Trinity. M any teachers who
lived on the premises shared their appreciation o f art and music w ith the students. They
had paintings in their homes through which they introduced students to the world of
art. They listened to music and shared their ear for classical music w ith the students. As
H ilary Abeyaratne says;

.. .As I write I am listening on the little C D player in my study to The Trout
quintet, my favourite piece of chamber music. This taste for that kind music I
got from my m other and my H ousem aster in the Senior School who left the
door to his rooms open, so th at we could listen to his records after lights out.
W hen I came back to the staff I tried the same thing but was taken aback
when I had one of the boarders come to the door and demand, on behalf of
the members o f the house, that it be closed because they could not sleep.

2 M arikar, A slam . A u th o r interview in N ovem ber 2007

106

Oft) ■..i. L-AWkksSfltiSk ■■ ,,%■*.&■^i-ksf '■ ■V'

z/Aov?.-The T rin ity C ollege L iterary A sso ciatio n , established in 1874, is one o f th e oldest school-societies in the country. D ram a, especially
S h a k e s p e a re a n th e a tre , h a s b e e n a t th e h e a r t o f its activ ities. Tlie A s so c ia tio n ’s p ro d u c tio n s o f th e T e m p e st a n d L lam let received rave review s from

the press in the 1950s and, even today. T rin ity continues to be a form idable contender at the annual All Island Shakespeare D ram a festival.

Be/otv; A college icon: B. A lexander (front row, sixthfro m /ty ) jo in ed T rin ity in 1958 as the telephone o p erato r and took on the additional role o f College
p ian ist an d o rg a n ist in 1971. A lth o u g h com pletely b lin d , A lexander can recognise an alum nus by his voice and will address him by nam e even if it has
been years since he left College.

TRINITY

Teachers and staff o f the College em body the ‘Trinity spirit’ and instil it in the boys

through example. M ajor G ordon Burrows, Choirm aster of Trinity, House M aster of

Alison and Vice Principal from 1946 to 1963, will always be remembered w ith immense

respect for everything he contributed to the students’ lives. Burrows had first come to

Ceylon as a staff m em ber o fM o u n tb atten ’s intelligence unit (South East Asia C om m and

- S.E.A .C.) in Peradeniya during the 2"'^ W orld War. W h e n the unit was demobilised

in 1946 he taught at Trinity for a short while, until he returned to Britain. Yet Trinity

had got under his skin and he returned to the school, taking up residence w ith in the

school premises, to remain there for almost twenty years. Students who were at Trinity,

who got to know him first as teacher, then m entor, and later in life as friend, say that

Burrows excelled at judging a stu d en t’s character, his strengths and his weaknesses. H e

m aintained close relationships w ith his students as his letter to Sriyantha Senaratna,

sent from Ireland in June 1957, shows:

C ongratulations on your appointm ent as M onitor. I am very glad that
you are down in junior school with M alcolm and Errol. Junior School
M onitorships are quite the most im portant in the school, and if the standard
and expectations are high, then the whole tone o f the school will be high
when the Juniors become Seniors - and even more im portant, they are likely
to develop into upright and happy m en throughout their adult life.

1know what 1am talking about, because recently 1have been noting how Peter
is all the tim e im itating every gesture and inflection o f the voice etc. w hich 1
make - a fact w hich fills me w ith a certain am ount o f apprehension.

Burrows had an extensive network o f friends in the administrative service, and in
the plantation and the mercantile sectors. His connections made a difference to the
Trinitians. W hen the time came for students to secure jobs. Burrows was able to open
doors for them to make their way to ‘plum ’posts.

If the Chapel is the heart o f Trinity, the choir is its voice. A ccording to legend, one of
Rev. Richard Collins’ first duties had heen to train boys in choral singing, and since
then, the choir has had a continuous existence in the school. Every year, from January,

108

Tiii'.iR i:\r r s and ti ikir kntrancks

Rigbt:"Us 1944 I fouiul m yself as a soliliei
on the H eadquarters S taff o f Lord l.ouis

M o u n th atten , whieli had heen transferred
trom D elhi to Peradeniya," writes G ordon
Burrows. “I was hearthroken w hen the tim e

cam e tor SE A C I leadquarters to move
to S ingapore and tiuis to leave h ch in d my

new C eylon friends, particularly I larrv
and O live. A tew m onths later, on mv
way to E ngland for dem ohilization from

Singapore, I w angled a quick visit to
C olom bo to see mv friends. W ith in a few
days and totally unexpectedly, 1 was asked
by the Principal, M r. Sim ithraaratchy, to
join the Staff o f T rin ity C ollege for one year.
It was H arry who persuaded me to accept
the offer, so th at, instead o f sailing hom e
to E ngland, 1 found m yself a schoolm aster
for the first tim e in m y life. T he 'one year’

in fact extended to nearly 19 years.”
Overleaf: Tlie T rin ity C ollege C h o ir
p ra c tic e s fo r th e y e a r’s caro l service.

the choir begins to prepare for the most im portant event in its calendar; the Christmas
Carol service, The Festival o f N ine Lessons and Carols. The choir gathers in the Chapel
after school and begins its practises. As they sing, the wind carries the sound of the
melodies out through the open colonnades o f the Chapel, across the premises, filling
the school w ith distant strains o f the year’s service. O n the day o f the service, the Chapel
comes alive, carefully lit and filled w ith students, past pupils and staff. To most students
however, any rem inder o f the carol service brings back only painful memories of carrying
chairs from the classrooms below, up the steep steps, to the Chapel grounds. T iere are
also the icons o f the choir such as Alexander, the Telephone O perator since 1958, who,
despite being visually handicapped, has been the school pianist and organist for over
35 years. In the 1950s, under Burrow’s training, the BBC relayed The Festival o f Nine
Lessons and Carols across the world as part o f its Christm as programme.

109





Those w h o ch eer f r o m th e s id e lin e s

Tlie support staff at T rinity have becom e legends over the
years. M any, w ith decades o f loyal service to the school, or
w ith several generations in the sam e post, arc repositories o f
institutional memory. They are an indelible part o f alum ni
recollections o f days at College and keep appearing as the
central figures in those m uch recounted anecdotes. Banda
the Bus D river, M arthelis the G rounds-m an at Asgiriya,
Thegis the stage-hand, Carolis w ho ran the tuck-shop and
Ponnasw am y the R ickshaw -R unner are only a handful from
a large group o f m en and w om en w ho keep a boarding school
like T rin ity fu n c tio n in g sm o o th ly . T h ey are also th e sc h o o l’s
greatest supporters. Fahim Shakoor recounts m em ories of
W illiam the B ell-ringer':

Som e groom ing them selves in the Ryde H ouse
toilet to m eet the H illw ood girls at the bus stand
and some getting ready w ith their rugby and
cricket paraphernalia, and som e grum bling about
tuition classes: the tim e, exactly 2:45 p.m . Suddenly
ev ery th in g is forg o tten . W illia m has descended th e
library stairs, w ith w ooden maUet in hand, a piece
o f cork in one ear, his finger in the other to thum p
on the 100 year-old iron tyre-rim and bring another
school day to an end. W illiam has given freedom to
the T rinitians after seven hours o f hard labour!

W illiam worked for T rinity for 35 years w ith
d e v o tio n a n d sincerity, n ev er ta k in g a d a y ’s leave.
N ever failing in the trust placed in him . H e left
C ollege in 1985, b u t till the end he w as a fuU-
blooded T rinitian, follow ing w ith interest the m any
activities o f the College. H e was very ill in hospital
w hen I told him o f the results o f the 1996 Bradby
E ncounter. H is face lit up w ith a sm ile and his eyes
glow ed w ith joy. T hey w ere his final m o m en ts o f
co n scio u sn ess. T h e ‘last b e ll’h a d called h im .

S h ak o o r, F ah iin . T ill the L a st B ell Calls, M e m o rie s o t TriniU ',
Trinity- C ollege K andy O ld Boys’A ssociation, Kandy, 1997,
p. 126.

Above: In the printing shop, next to the 19th century vintage press, (from left to right), N alin, Syadoris, D ilogen, Sim on, G ishan, C h an n a
and I lem all. M iddle: Sam son R ajaratnam stands (foreground left) next to the T rin ity C ollege bus d u rin g a Ryde H o u se excursion in the

early 1950s. 'I h c b u s, d riv e n by M a r tin d u r in g R a ja ra tn a in ’s tim e , la te r b e c a m e sy n o n y m o u s w ith B a n d a . B elow : M a r th c n is , k n o w n to
generations of T rin itian s as M arthelis, the gro u n d sm an at A sgiriya (seated fro n t row) poses w ith a C ollege cricket team .

TIIF.IR KXITS AND TM FIR ENTRANCES

A b o ve, left: P rin c ip a l, H . P. N a p ie r - C la v e r in g (1 8 9 0 -1 9 0 0 ). A b o ve, right: In A Ick F raser, th e C .M .S fo u n d n o t o n ly a P rin c ip a l b u t also an astu te
fundraiser. H e estabU shed the T rin ity C ollege E xtension F und in B ritain to raise m oney for new buildings and land for the College. The success
o f the fund depended on the dedication o f his friend, W . W atson o f N ew -castle-on-T yne, who becam e its Treasurer. W h en T rinity com pleted a
th r e e - s to r y b u ild in g in 1910, F ra se r n a m e d it a f te r W a ts o n ’s d a u g h te r, A liso n . H e r p o r tr a it h as b e e n h a n g in g in th e A liso n H o u s e d o rm ito ry fo r
a lm o s t a c e n tu ry . A liso n d ie d th e y ear th e b u ild in g w as c o m p le te d . In c id e n ta lly , F ra s e r’s se co n d d a u g h te r, also b o r n in 1910, w as n am e d A liso n .

The sense ofbrotherhood that is characteristic am ongTrinitians and the close relationship
students have w ith staff, come directly from the residential setting o f the school. The
hoarding, governed hy a H ouse System, forms the essence o f Trinity. Nowhere is this
more telling than in the school policy which insists that every Senior Prefect of the
school must become a boarder during the time he holds post. Principal Napier-Clavering
started the first dorm itory in 1898 to provide residential facilities for students. The
dorm itory came to be known after him, and Napier is the oldest in the college House
System. In 1910, Fraser constructed a three-story building and dedicated its top floor
to a dormitory. H e named it Alison, after the four-year-old daughter of Mr. Watson, the
Treasurer o f the Extension F u n d h t had started in Britain to raise funds for Trinity. The
third H ouse, Ryde, nam ed after Principal Rev. Ryde, did not have a perm anent location
until 1923. Fraser also started a H ouse for the day scholars called Garrett, named after
Principal G arrett. As the school roll increased, the House System expanded and divided
into the Upper School Houses, M iddle School Houses and Junior School Houses, each
School having its own residential and day houses. Each House has its Housemaster and
H ouse Prefects. For many former students. Housemasters such as Theodore Silva, Jim
W irasinha, H ilary Abeyaratne, and G ordon Burrows became central figures and role

113

TRINITY

Above, L -R : Principal R. W . Ryde (1900-1902), Principal J. G . G arret (1881-1886),
M rs. G . M . W adsw orth, an English trained nurse, was the Sickroom M atron from 1937 to 1960.

models during the m ost formative tim e o f their lives.
The ladies at Trinity give students, especially those who are boarded from their Junior
School days, a hom e away from home: a place th at is “strict but ju st”®, a place where
good deeds are given their due and crimes are dealt w ith a cane. M rs. R uth Keyt, the
H ead M istress o f the Junior School, M s. Kaul, the M atro n o f the M atron’s D orm itory
and. Miss. Van Schoenbeck, the M atron o f the Junior School, were the epitome of
boarding school discipline and care. The M atron’s D orm houses the smallest boys who
arrive at Trinity at the age o f five. In the past, some small boys had already been broken
into the system at a girl’s school nearby. As Dr. N eil H alpe recalls, “w hen there were
sisters already leaving home at the end o f the holidays, the younger ones looked forward
to going to boarding school.’” In hindsight, the O ld Boys recall the M atrons very
fondly. “I howled my head off at this perceived desertion”, says Abeyaratne, speaking
about his first day at Trinity, “and ran after the car that was carrying my parents back to
our home some eighty odd miles away. I was forcefully restrained by two o f the servants

3 .Senaratna, S riy a n th a . L v n Van Schoenbeck - Jin iio r School M a tro n , M e m o rie s o t T 'rinitv, TVinirv C o lle g e O ld B oys’
A ssociation, Kandv, 1997, p. 102.

4 A uthor interview w ith D r Neil 1lalpe, Kandy, July 2007

14

r 1 11', 1 K \: \ r r s A N I ) TT11: i r i-:n r u a n c i',s

who brought me back to tacc not the sympathy but the wrath of the matron in charge,
cane in hand.” T ie M atron in charge o f the sick room, Mrs. W adsworth, who held the
post until 1960, served under four Principals. She had trained at the Edinburgh Royal
Infirmary and her reputation for cleanliness and her absolute dismissal of incompetence
are now legendary. She is recalled w ith affection for being a m other and confidante, and
is spoken ot w ith immense respect for her response at the time o f a crisis: an outbreak
o f smallpox in 1945. M rs. W adsworth, a widow with children o f her own, risked her life
by personally caring for the student in quarantine. H er selfless act prevented a smallpox
epidemic w ithin the school.^

The families of staff members transform the atmosphere of the boarding, by bringing a
w arm th and sense o f dom esticity to the boarders’lives, that are otherwise a roll of rigid
routines. W ives o f M asters such as M ay Elliot, Pat Burrows, Nandanie Abeyaratne
and numerous others today, complement their husbands’ rapport with the students by
keeping an open house, entertaining regularly, feeding hungry students, who had been
made to miss their meals as punishm ent and, turning chickens, mysteriously acquired
by students, into hearty curries for them! There are also the Trinity girls, the daughters
of staff who grow up on the premises. Anne Rambukwelle, daughter of M ajor Harry
Hardy, says, “M y first m em ory o fT rin ity was learning to brush my teeth at Squealery
where my father was Housemaster, and I ended my life at Trinity in the same building,
again brushing teeth, but this time not my own.The Squealery had become the matron’s
dorm and I was helping the matron w ith her little charges.... W orking in the matron’s
dorm after I left school was a wonderful experience and I loved those boys dearly. 1 meet
many o f them still, now grown into handsome young men with sons o f their own, also
at Trinity.^”Anne married Kavan Rambukwelle, a student ofT rinity and winner of a
Rugger Lion in 1951. Theirs was a ‘Trinity romance’that began when she was 14 years
old.

5 T rinity College M agazine, 1960
6 R am bukw elle, A nne. M emories o fa T rinity Girl, M em ories ofT rinity , T rin ity College O ld B oys'A ssociation, Kandy, 1997,

pp. 88 - 90.

115

rUINITY

Food is every adm inistrator’s bane at a boarding school. For boarders, always hungry,
always looking forward to a special meal, raiding the tuck-shop is a daredevil task not
to be undertaken lightly. The consequences it brings upon the culprits, if exposed, are
dire, and there were times when students revolted against the food. M uch to the utter
disbelief of Sooriaarachchi (Soochi) the food manager, a Trinity icon who handled the
kitchens and the supplies and, who took his job very seriously, the day arrived when
nothing left the table. As M . V. M ushin writes in his tribute to Principal Oorloff:

Tire first ever dow n-to-earth strike at T rinity took place in the O orloff regime
following the tim e’s codes. Pum pkin for lunch and pum pkin for dinner had
evidently become intolerable! But O orloff struck back in such style as to
have the vegetable digestible taken cooked or raw. O ne o f the defeated strike
leaders - was later appointed H ead Prefect w ith rare understanding shown
by his Principal.

Yet, during crises, especially nationwide food shortages and restrictions,T rinity m anaged
to keep its boarding house going. In 1971, when m ost schools had to close down their
boarding houses or increase fees, unable to provide adequate meals for the students.
Trinity’s residential facilities stayed open. Its fees rem ained the same. The College could
do this because it owned a farm.

A t most schools agriculture and farm ing are only subjects. A t Trinity, they are an integral
part o f the students’lives. The farm ensured this because it did not exist as a showpiece,
but instead was one of the chief suppliers to the boarding house. The provincial setting
of the school, the landowning background o f some o f its students, and a faculty that had
qualifications in science subjects, sustained the school’s involvem ent w ith the ‘land’from
the very beginning. As early as in 1914, under N orm an C am pbell’s guidance. T rinity
started experimenting with scientific m ethods o f paddy cultivation and dem onstrated
to the local farmers that scientific paddy cultivation reaped a larger harvest. This was at
a time when the concept of scientific agricultural m ethods was yet in its infancy*

7 M u sh in , M .V ., Cedric O o rlo ff- a teacher on the side o f the child.
8 W ard. W .E .h, Fraser of T rinity andA chim ota, G h a n a U niversity Press, G h an a, 1965, p.65

16

TTIEIR EXEES AND TMEIR ENTRANCES

.TAow. T h e d in in g h all, 2 007.

The Food Strike

Dr. N eil H alpe recounts the tim e w hen the entire U pper School, the form o f protest. Soon the day arrived. A t the lunch inten^al
did the unthinkable: sacrificed their m eal.' the boarders trooped into the d in in g hall as on any o th er day.
B ut the usual clatter o f fork and spoon gave way to an eerie
Trinity boarders, it appears, have the uncanny knack of silence. N obody touched the food. N obody except, Punch
u n n e rv in g n ew P rincipals! T w o te rm s in to O o r lo ff ’s tenure Ekanayake, the Senior Prefect, w ho had been sum m oned
cam e the infam ous “F ood S trik e”, the first ever in alm ost by the Principal only an hour earlier and questioned on the
90 years o f the school boarding. Perhaps it was a sign o f dark rum our that was circulating about a food strike, which
th e tim es, as S .W .R .D ’s ‘A p e A n d u w a ’, n o w w ell in to its P unch truthfully said he was unaw are of, and O di, w ho could
second troubled year was plagued by a series o f strikes, and n ot contain his autonom ic Pavlovian reflex, cultivated over
not surprisingly the virus, and T rinity was no exception... 12 years o f b o a rd in g life, o f g o in g straig h t fo r th e fo o d as
H aving had no response to several appeals to im prove the soon as the last syllable o f grace was heard! As always in a
quality o f the food, som e o f the m ore enterprising decided crisis, G ordon Burrow s was soon on the scene. H aving taken
th at the tim e had com e to p ro te st... D iscreet messages had in th e m essage, he ran g th e bell for grace and said, “since all of
been circulated in the prep halls giving the day and tim e and us have received n o th in g , th e re ’s n o t m uch p o in t in praising
the L ord,”w ith m ore than a touch o f sarcasm. Inquiries soon
H a lp e , N eil. The Fifties: Warts a n d A ll, M em o rie s o f T riniry, T rin ity com m enced and heads soon rolled...
C ollege K andy O ld Boys’A ssociation, Kandy, 1 9 9 7 ,p p .lll- H 2

O verleaf'Vnc view from the farm .

v^gU -Ix . *, i ’ ^. ■4 ?

.
-/-■■'>.-r*I^- ” .«* "-V-* , ' ,# ’ «» , , , JT

-
a ti

T R IN IT Y

Trinity began its first farm in the 1920s

when Principal M cLeod Cam pbell leased

tw enty five acres o f land at Bahirawakanda

and purchased a three-acre paddy-field in

Udawattekelle. The farm included animal

husbandry and cultivation. Yet the college

lost the land in the 1940s when the lease

came to an end, and until the early 1950s,

farming was limited to the Trinity premises.

W hen N orm an W alter took over the post of

Principal in 1952, he decided that it was time,

once again, for Trinity to own a farm.^ Acting

on a tip that 10 acres o f land were available in

Haragama, W alter worked ceaselessly, despite

W illiam Sinnatham by was the heart and soul of several abortive efforts, until he secured the
the T rinity Farm s from 1 9 5 2 - 1983. land. H e and Gordon Burrows personally
moved animals in their vehicles to the farm.

Since then, the Trinity Farm has had a chequered history. In 1966, the farm had to be

moved again and was re-established on a 40-acre block o f land in Ballagolla. In the

1980s the G overnm ent acquired m ost o f the Ballagolla farm for the Victoria Reservoir

Project, but com pensated for this w ith 89 acres o f land where the school established

the Trinity Agricultural ln stitution.T oA 2cy only a m uch smaller area o f land in Pallekele

makes up the Trinity Farm. Yet over all these changes and movements, one individual

ensured that the Trinity Farm continued in ideal and concept, a teacher that had been

associated with the Farm from the time o f N orm an W alter: Bill Sinnathamby. W hen

Walter and Burrows looked around for a master to be in charge of the farm in 1952,

they found him in Sinnathamby.

W hen W illiam (Bill) Sinnatham by took his appointm ent at Trinity in 1952, he had

9 C entenary N um ber

120

rilKlK KXri'S AND rilKIU KN'I'RANCKS

already built a reputation for himself as a brilliant teacher. H e had a degree in Botany
and M athem atics and a Teacher’s Diplom a from Oxford. Sinnathamby had taught at
Rydal School, Colwyai Bay, U.K. A lthough he had not studied agriculture, he developed
farming at Trinity up to international standards. A passion for farming turned into
a lifelong devotion to the land and he experimented with mixed farming, multiple
cropping, and organic farming. Sinnathamby kept the Trinity Farm ahead of the times.
It drew people from agricultural faculties around the world, and the F.A.O., and even
leaders such as Prim e M inisters D udley Senanayake and Sirimavo Bandaranaike during
national campaigns for locally grown food and during food shortages. In a country that
is still largely agricultural, a private school that inculcated a sense o f connection with
the land in the students made a national statem ent. As Bill Sinnathamby said:

W ith the spectre of unemployment looming over their heads, the youth of
this country, in this increasingly alarming nightmare, can find in the Trinity
Farm a sure way of helping themselves and their country. O ur farms, the one
at H aragam a even more than the present one, have demonstrated beyond
doubt that w ith perseverance and a m inim um o f capital it is possible to make
a satisfactory living even out o f somewhat unfriendly soil - a living that not
only provides satisfaction far greater than those obtained by sitting behind a
desk but also contributes so directly to the well-being o f the nation.'**

Bill Sinnathamby died in 1983 surrounded by friends at a dinner hosted byProf
ArjunaAluwihare, a Trinitian and respected academic who was Vice Chancellor of
the University o f Peradeniya. Am ong the guests was one of his closest friends, Gordon
Burrows, who had come down from England. Sinnathamby was buried on the farm,
surrounded by verdant hills, w ith the sounds and activities that had become part o f life,
constantly moving over his grave.

A love o f nature and an appreciation o f the natural world came easily at a school

10 C e n te n a ry N u m b e r, P. 96

121

TRINITY

such as Trinity. T ie landscape o f the C entral H ighlands was a part o f student-life, the
school athletes practised their cross-country running through Udewattekele, and as one
form er student said, “everything happened at U dew attekele”. For some students this
association w ith the environm ent became central to their lives. O ne student, C hristopher
W ickrem esinghe, influenced by teachers such as Valesca Reim ann, founded the Historical
and Geographical Society at Trinity w ith H ilary Abeyaratne. Later, w hen a career in
medicine came to an end, he devoted his time to the wilds, immersed in his subjects of
interest; the Veddhas, elephants, ancient irrigation works and photography.” In 1950
W ickrem esinghe joined the Department o f Wildlife Conservation as a G am e Ranger and
having made the National Parks and bintanne his home, he spent his time championing
for conservation o f the jungle and its inhabitants. As a pioneer wildlife photographer of
Ceylon who produced images o f award w inning quality, the World Wildlife F und selected
one of his photographs for publication in a series o f picture postcards. Dr. Vernon L.
B. M endis, diplom at and fellow T rinitian says, “[a]s an official o f the D epartm ent
W ickrem esinghe] saw him self not merely as the passive custodian o f W ildlife, but as
one com m itted to giving it its rightful place in the nation and prom oting studies and
research o f all aspects o f it. H is real contribution was therefore in the intensive research,
which he him self conducted and his publications which disseminated this knowledge
throughout the country. ”W h e n Leonard W oolf returned to Ceylon in the ‘60s it was
W ickrem esinghe who accom panied him back to H am bantota. H e is the only Sri Lankan
to have been co-opted into the Order o f the Golden A rk o f the N etherlands by H is Royal
H ighness Prince Bernhard and, in 1999 the D irector G eneral o f the World Wildlife
Fund recognised W ickrem esinghe as one o f the m ost im portant conservationists o f his
generation. W ickrem esinghe received the W W F Conservation M erit Award.

Just as the Historical and Geographical Society was founded by one student because o f
his personal interest in the subject, school societies play a significant role in broadening
the student experience at Trinity. The annual prize list includes awards for Comparative
Religion, Folklore and Kandyan D ancing, endorsing the school’s support for broadening
students’ interests. From its inception Trinity believed this was the way to turn out

11 M ciu lis, V ernon L. H, A K n ig h t E rra n t of the Jungle., I )iiily N ew s, A N C I ,, C o lo m b o , S a tu rd a y M a rcli 11, 2 0 0 0 , p. 25

122

I'liKiR i:\rrs a n d t h k ir e n t r a n c e s

an*

A bove: L e o n a rd VVoolt in Yala w ith C h risto p h e r W ick rcm esin g h e (far rig h t) and a guide from the
Yala N ational P ark (far left).

all-rounder students. In the 1920’s M cL eod Campbell, addressing the audience at the
Prize Day, said:

I cannot tell to what extent the prize list has fulfilled the purpose I hoped it
may fulfil in serving to reflect as in a m irror w hat goes on in this college...!
hope it may at least have shown that the education at Trinity is m any-sided,
presenting a great variety and choice of interests, any of which may stab
the m ind awake. I hope it may have disclosed an education which is by no
means unrelated to life - by no means unrelated to the life and destiny o f the
country which we desire to serve.

Alm ost a century later. Prof. W. R. Breckenridge, Principal ofTrinity from 1999 - 2003,
reiteratedthe same expectation at his first Prize Day, but enlarged the thought, saying
Trinity needed to open up to the world and enable its students to move out of the

oasis:

O u r students m ust not merely centre their lives around books and
examinations, games and other school activities. They must also remain

123

T R IN IT Y

alive to the world around them , to the problem s th at our people face, to the
advance and successes o f the country as well as its weaknesses and failings.
Tlien only can they say that they are educated in the truest sense o f the
word.

I f the school setting created an ‘oasis’for its students, its Associations drew them out into
the ‘wider w orld’: the Social Service Union, for instance, worked w ith underprivileged
communities, instilling in students the value that it was part o f a person’s duty to engage
in the world around him . The Trinity College Literary Association is the oldest recorded
literary association in the country, formed in 1875 by Andrew Loos, w ith Principal
Rev. Collins as its President. A t the tim e, m em bership was open to the general public
and the Association created many firsts, such as the first inter-school debate in Ceylon,
Trinity against St Thomas’ College, M t. Lavinia, which took place in 1912. In 1933,
w hen the Astronomical Society o f the school built its Observatory, its telescope was the
largest in Ceylon, and the society was the only one in the country to have its own
telescope and observatory. Today there are language unions for Sinhala, and for Tamil,

dating from 1913 and 1919, and several religious
Unions in addition to numerous other Societies
such as the St Johns A m bulance Brigade, the
O riental M usic Society, the Kandyan D rum and
Dance Troupe, the Photographic Society and, the
Science Research Society.

Above: Principal W . R anjith B reckenridge Students of Trinity continue to build on their
(1998-2004). interests as they move ahead in their careers,
interweavingboth, and creating room for the outside
w orld to be part o f their lives. Asela G unaw ardana
left College in 1991. H e received his P h.D from
John H opkins University in Inform ation G eom etry
for Speech and Image Processing. H e was twenty-
six years old at the tim e and is now employed at
M icrosoft in Seattle, U.S.A. H e says.-“I do research
on machine learning, the science o f making

124

t h e ir ex it s an d t h e ir en t r a n c e s

A bove: F o u n d e d in 1928, th e A stro n o m ical Society is o n e o f th e oldest societies o f th e C ollege. T he telescope w hich was
com pleted in 1933 and later installed in the observatory was declared open by Sir G . Tyrrell, the C h ief Secretary. The
observatory was the largest in C eylon at the tim e.

computers learn from data, and online economics - how economics online differ from
traditional economics - and try to then find ways to incorporate cutting-edge research
into M icrosoft’s products and services. Previously, I ’ve also done a fair am ount o f work
on speech recognition, making computers learn to understand speech.”
A t Trinity, G unaw ardana was an active mem ber o f many school societies. H e says he
had been in “both the English and Sinhala Literary Associations, the photography
association, film club, science club, library guild, school officers’ guild, as well as a
num ber o f theatre productions. [I] was a cadet, played table tennis, and swam.”W hen
the 2004 tsunami struck Sri Lanka, Gunawardana worked with a group of Sri Lankans
living in the U.S. to raise funds for Sarvodya. It is Trinity he says, that made him
realise th at “m ost people, [my] self included, are limited only in w hat they think they
can achieve."”

12 G unew ardene, Asela. Rcponses to author questions, Novem ber, 2007.

Vll

The World We W ant

It is fatally easy in an essay o f this nature to visualise an U topia totally
removed from the context of modern conditions. Such a tendency must
obviously be avoided, for the purpose o f this essay is to conceive a situation
in the w orld w hich, in relation to m an’s past achievem ents and contem porary
developments, will approximate to a practicable state o f perfection. It would
avoid being unrealistic and im practicable by being m oulded by, and related
to, w hat m ankind has already achieved and is in the process o f achieving.

Jayantha D hanapala, excerpt from The World We Want
- H erald T ribune prize-w inning essay, 1957.

W HEN H E WAS A SEVENTEEN YEAR-OLD STUDENT at Trinity College, Kandy,
Jayantha Dhanapala submitted an essay to a com petition run by the Herald Tribune
newspaper o f the U nited States. In his com position. The World We Want, he described
a world built on economic freedom , a place where the “sheer effort to live” had been
eliminated, where a vigilant public fought to preserve freedom and democracy, and
where education reinforced moral values and a genuine interest in cultural activities. H e
emphasised th at “War, w ith its attendant evils o f suffering, starvation and destruction,
must never be re-enacted in our modern w o rld ... W ar m ust cease to be the final arbiter
between different political ideologies. ” H e won the competition. As part o f the award
D hanapala travelled to the U.S. where he m et President (then Senator) John F. Kennedy,
and President D w ight D. Eisenhower.

Today, 50 years later, D hanapala is one o f Sri Lanka’s forem ost diplom ats, and the only Sri
Lankan to hold one o f the highest posts at the U.N. In 2006 Sri Lanka nom inated him
as the country’s candidate for the post o f U.N. Secretary General. H is career has spanned

126

II

•I

UINITY

academia, government and the U nited Nations. H is most recent appointm ents have
been as U nder-Secretary G eneral o f the U nited N ations D epartm ent for D isarm am ent
Affairs, Commissioner for the U nited Nations Special Commission, and the H ead of the
Special G roup visiting the Presidential sites in Iraq. In 2007, the Pugwash Conference
on Science and W orld Affairs appointed him as its President. D hanapala received his
secondary education at T rinity from 1951 to 1957, w hen he entered the school, as he
says, following tradition. H e won the Ryde G old M edal in 1956.

Today, as a parent w ho has observed the education offered at some o f the w orld’s m ost
prestigious institutions, D hanapala says th at his “son missed the corporate life ofT rinity;
the team spirit th at came from the associations.” H e says he gained m uch from the
Social Service U nion which brought Trinitians into contact w ith a society very different
to the one they were used to. However, D hanapala cautions against the veneer o f elitism
based on wealth and privilege th at is linked to a private school such as Trinity. A ny form
o f elitism, according to him , should be based on academic excellence. H e emphasises
th at academic excellence needs to be accom panied by an openness to the ‘w orld’around

Banding together — the Trinity Lads in North America

W h en D inesh D e Soyza approached Sri Sagadevan w ith the m e a n in g fu lprojects back to our alm a mater. A n d so it w as
idea o f form ing an O .B .A . in Los Angeles, they knew there th a t the fir s t T rin ity College O.B.A. in N orth Am erica
w ere e n o u g h T rin itia n s “g a d d in g a b o u t” in th e S ta te to create a w as born. A p tly nam ed T.C.K. O.B.A. - California, it
group. Yet, they had a challenge on th eir hands! Sri Sagadevan comprised a handful o f T rin ity A lu m n i domiciled in the
talks about the b irth o f the T 'T rin ity O .B .A . in N o rth A m erica Greater Los Angeles area.
in the early 80s':
A s T rin itia n s liv in g elsewhere in the U.S. began to get
■■■[T]he challenge w as to b a n d them a ll together in a w in d o f this sprightly little group — and their madly
cohesive group, w ith some semblance o f purpose (hopefully celebratory meetings - requests f o r membership began to
a notch beyond mere m errym aking!) trickle in fr o m across the country. N a tu ra lly, a ll applicants
w ere heartily embraced a n d the organisation w a s soon
Our goals a n d objectives at the inception were simple: renam ed T. C. K. O. B .A . - U. S.A.
a) to meet periodically in order to rekindle a n d w eave
the uniquely convivial T rin ity spirit a n d camaraderie E x co rp ts tVom w rite u p se n t in by S ri S agiidevan, 20 0 8
into our hectic A m erican lifestyles, a n d b) in the process,
generatefu n d s th a t could be channelled tow ards supporting

128

TTIK W O R L D W E W ANT

the student, and an exposure to people o f all strata o f society. In 1993, speaking as C hief
G uest at the Trinity College Junior School Prize Day, he said:

T rinity is a tee-levying school, and a Trinity education is not affordable to
all the citizens o f our country. As a Prince o f Wales scholar for part o f my
T rinity career, I know how the burden on the pension o f my father as a
retired school principal was lightened. That makes Trinity, in spite of the
limited but praiseworthy number of scholarships - restricted to a particular
economic class. For many years after I left Trinity I was deeply troubled by
the fact that Trinity was perceived in the country at large as a bastion o f
privilege based on wealth. Paradoxically T rinity’s values themselves prom pted
a meritocracy rather than a moneyocracy. W e must be humble over this fact
that the T rinity experience is not available to all. The Trinity experience is an
all-inclusive one which produces a student intensely conscious o f his social
context. Associations such as the Social Service U nion, the expeditions to
the Trinity farm and the entire ambience of the school develops a social
conscience. To my m ind th at finally is very im portant, and so while they
enter Trinity as boys o f parents who can afford this education, Trinitians
leave as citizens concerned about their fellow-men and dedicated to their

D hanapala is one o f a list o f many distinguished products of Trinity. The school
produced Sri Lanka’s first Ceylonese Inspector G eneral o f Police, the first Ceylonese
Rhodes Scholar, Nihal Kappagoda, two Vice Chancellors, P rof Ralph Panabokke
and P ro f Arjuna Aluvihare, two C hief Justices, and several commanders of the armed
forces. Trinity has also been the school o f many religious dignitaries and among them
are B uddhist prelates: two M ahanayake Theros, one o f Asgiriya, Rev. Udugama Sri
B uddharakitha Rathanapala and one o f M alwatte, Rev. M adugalle Sri Sumana
Siddhartha D harm asiddi. O n the list is also a Bishop o f Colombo, Rt. Rev. Jabez
Gnanapragasam. The Prime M inister of Buganda from 1945 to 1950, Ernest Michael
Kagwa, and the second African national to be Knighted and President of the Ugandan

D hanapala, Jayantha, address at the T rinity Junior School Prize-G iving, January 1993.

129

I'KINn'Y

Industrial Court, M ichael Kabali Kagwa also studied at Trinity. Foreign students such
as the Kag-was were not unusual at the College. In the years after the 2"**W orld War, the
school recorded many students from different countries and among them were the sons
of the Royal families of the Maldives and of Buganda.The friendships that were forged
between Sri Lankan-born Trinitians and those from overseas have endured over time.

One of the most im portant avenues by which the alumni keep in touch with each
other has been the Old Boys’Association. In 1892, Principal Rev. N apier-C lavering
gathered 33 of the registered 103 former students o f Trinity at his bungalow for tiffin,
and form ed the Old Boys’Association o f Trinity College. For several decades, the Principal
o f Trinity held the post o f President o f the Association.TCvt, tradition was broken only in
1918 w henT . B. M oonam ale held the post o f President from 1918 to 1924.

Yet, it was only in 1908 th at the true significance o f having form er students rallying
around the school became evident. This came about w ith the formation o f a branch
o f the Association in Colom bo. The Colombo Branch was inaugurated in 1908 w hen
alumni gathered at the Old Boys’Brigade H all in Galle Face. The suggestion o f form ing
an association had been made by H . C. Jayasinghe, the College Bursar at the time,
and given the large num ber o f O ld Boys who lived in Colombo, it had been strongly
supported. They installed Rev. Ryde, the Principal o f T rinity from 1900-1902, w ho was
living in Colom bo at the tim e, as the first President o f the Branch. In 1908, w hen Fraser
suggested that an award should be presented to the best all-round student, the Colombo
Branch took up the suggestion. The tradition o f selecting the best all-round student
originated in the days o f Principal N apier-C lavering , w hen E. C. de Alwis received
the best all-rounder prize in 1894. The Colombo Branch nam ed the new prize after its
first President, and the Ryde G old M edal came into existence. Each year, selection of
the w inner is based on the result o f three votes: the senior students and the staff have
a vote each, while the Principal’s vote makes up the third. Since the first award made in
1908 to J. Andrew, the medal has rem ained the m ost coveted award to be presented to
a student at Trinity.^ M o st significantly, w ith the Colombo Branch passing a resolution

A bcyanitnc, 1 lilary cd., Centenary Num her, 1 9 7 2 ,IV initv C ollege, Kaiidy, p. 329

130

Above, le ftT n e first m eetin g o f th e C olo m b o B ranch o f the O .B .A . bro u g h t together the T rinity alum ni in
C olom bo, th e form er Principal Rev. Ryde and the B ursar o f the C ollege, H . C . Jayasinghe. Tliis 100 year-
old photo has captured the historic occasion w hich took place at the Brigade H all in G alle Face in 1908.

A bove, right:'W \e Ryde G o ld M edal aw arded in 1942 to G ilb ert P aranagam a.

in 1909 to make this an annual award, the Ryde Gold M edal has remained the only
project undertaken by the O ld Boys that has continued uninterrupted for almost a
century. A contribution to the school, such as the Ryde G old M edal, showed the
impact O ld Boys could have on Trinity, and since then, many former alumni have made
generous donations o f funds and in-kind to the school. The school library, the archives,
the hall, the hospital and later, awards and prizes such as the Valesca Reimann Prize
owe their existence to the O ld Boys and to the Association.

However, the Old Boys'Association was transform ed in the late 1950s, shifting attention
to the urgent need for more members and funds. Kenneth Boteju and R. M . P.
Kehelpannala, two school friends who had been active in Napier House Association and
the Astronomical Society, became the force behind the revival o f the Colombo Branch.

131

T R IN IT Y

Tliey received strong encouragem ent from O ld Boys such as Dr. W illie Ratnavale
and Dr. T. R. Jansen w ho served as Presidents o f the Colombo Branch at various times.
Together, Boteju and Kehelpannala personally built up the Branch, visiting organisations
in Colombo on work, but using the opportunity to canvas for membership and for
donations from Trinity alumni working in those organisations. They used their personal
funds to send out letters to members, and kept members linked to the organisation
by takingevery opportunity to get them together in small groups. Because o f their
personaleffort, com m itm ent and one brilliant idea, they changed the image o f a school
alumni association in Ceylon. According to Boteju:

K ehelpannala becam e secretary in ‘59 and I becam e the secretary in ‘64. The
first year we went for the A .G .M . they had no money for the Ryde Gold
M edal. So we started the Supper Dance to raise funds. I was a bit o f a dancer
and no school had a dance before that. W e were the first school to start the
dance, now every school has a dance, bu t we were the first! W e sold tickets
for seven Rupees and fifty cents. I roneoed the letters to the members myself
and paid for postage out of my own pocket. A nd that way we made money
for the Ryde Gold Medal.

O ver the course o f ten years, m em bership o f the Colombo Branch grew significantly and
the Branch became an inspiration for Trinity alumni both in Sri Lanka and in other
countries. Today there are several ‘branches’ o f the Trinity College Old Boys’Association
spread across the world. M any members display unwavering dedication to the welfare
o f both the school and the Trinity College Old Boys’Association. H uthaifa H alim deen, for
instance, served as a dynamic Project C oordinator for the construction o f the Asgiriya
Stadium and carried the distinction of having an unbroken tenure o f half a century of
holding offices in the netw ork o f the Association.

G ilbert Paranagam a is one o f the oldest m em bers o f the A ssociation and a past President.
Born in 1923 to a family o f Trinitians, Paranagam a entered College as a six-year-old.
H e recalls studying under Principal Cam pbell, and says, “we adm ired his work. H e
was also the best teacher o f the school at the time. There were also Principals o f the
like of Stopford and Simithraaratchy, and staff o f the calibre o f Jim W eerasinha, R. R.

132

TTI K W O RM ) WK WANT'

Brekenbridge, and Ms. Ruth Keyt, my primary teacher during my early years atT .C .K .”
Paranagama played rugby in school and was a member o f the school boxing team and
w ent on to become the Senior Prefect ofT rinity and a Ryde Gold medallist. H e says, ‘1
felt that as the medal was given to me by the school, 1 should re-gift it back to my alma-
m ater as a m ark o f gratitude for m oulding a good part o f my student and adult days in
the journey o f life. I also felt that ifT .C .K . was situated in another environment it may
not have had the charm and grandeur it possessed, nestling amongst the magnificent
hills of Kandy in a cool and breathtaking atmosphere. I always felt so special being a
part of this wonderful school - Trinity College.”

Paranagama never lost his sense The Centenary Group
o f gratitude for the College, and
throughout his life continued to A founder m em ber o f The C entenary G roup talks about
repay his debt to Trinity w ith his the G roup and the inspiration that cam e from an unlikely
involvement in the Association source w hich led to its form ation:'
which he helped mould into the
form it takes today. H e says, “I C hanna Jayaw ickram e’s residence a t No. 10, George
served on the Board of Governors E. de S ilva M avuatha, K andy, h a d been the 'The
o fT rin ity in the ’80s and also was Watering H ole’ o f m any a Bradby fa n since leaving
the President o f the Trinity College 'The Best School o f AH'. The Bradby w as to be held at
O ld Boys Association Colombo Bogambara in 1994, and Channa had invited Benny
Branch, and was instrum ental in Kumarasinghe, A rjuna Fernando and Bandula
re-drafting its constitution with Senanayake, all residing in Kandy, to jo in him fo r
the then Committee.” fellow ship an d lunch w ith N im alka Yatawara,
Ihusitha Hemachandra, jayantha R atw atte and
Trinitians o f G ilbert Paranagama’s Iv a n de Silva, w ho h a d come upfr o m Colombo. M usic
generation will always recount a o f a brass b a n d w as heard a t a distance a n d w ith in
debt to Trinity of a particular type. seconds it w as inf r o n t o f us. A R oyal Cheering squad
They belong to the first group h a d stopped tofresh en up a t Channa's. This prom pted
o f locals to enter the British- Ihusitha Hemachandra to suggest "why not start a
dominated mercantile sector of sim ilar group amongst us?” The topic w as discussed
Ceylon, taking up positions that and Bandula Senanayake proposed that w e call it
"The Centenary G roup”. The O ld Boys o f Grades 10,
11, & 12 in 1972 are eligible to j o i n ... We count a
membersh ip o f almost 3 0 0 to date a nd have gained
official recognition by the Parent Body o f the O.B.A.
as an a f f Hated group.

1 E xcerpts from w rite up sent in b\' B andula Senanayake to
H itnendra Ranaw ccra, 2007.

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T R I M TY

remained closed to locals until they received the education and the values that were
to make them acceptable w ithin the fold. As Paranagam a says o f his early days in his
career; “subsequently I joined the private sector - W h ittall Bousteads, Bosanquets and
Skrine Ltd as an Executive A ssistant, and was one o f the first Sinhala Directors am ongst
the many Britishers. I held the position of M anaging Director of the Company at the
time of my retirem ent.”

Nowhere is T rinity’s role in creating and contributing to the changing social and economic

dynamics of a county on the verge o f independence, more evident, more relevant, than

in the commercial sector, where young men groomed at the College were able to take up

key posts. Alm ost a century later, the

The Old Trinitians’Sports Club foresight of the residents of Kandy
who predicted the need for a school,

H arindra Dunuvville goes dow n m em ory lane to describe th at would give their sons a ‘W estern
the beginnings o f the O ld T rinitians’Sports C lub 25 years style’education to m eet the changing
ago': dynamics of the relationship between
the ruled and the ruler, had come to
One evening I had an unexpected visitor in thefo rm pass. Fortunately, the beneficiaries
o f the late M r. A . G. G. Perera a t the tim e 1 w as the o f a ‘T rinity education’ were not
Honorary Secretary o f the O ld Boys' Association. 1 exclusively the families for w hich the
had only heard o f M r. Perera - th a t he was an O ld school was initially intended. Fraser’s
Boy a n d one w ho had pioneered a n d established The humanism, a missionary education
N a tio n a l Schools Cricket Association o f S ri L a n k a system built on charity and service,
as the Principal o f M aliyadeva M a h a Vidyalaya, and the passage of time, ensured that
Kurunegala. . . . O n his retirement in K andy he was the ‘fruits’ o f T rinity’s existence came
dismayed a t thepoor standard ofcricket at T rin ity and within reach of thousands of other
wondered how prom ising school cricketers could get students from diverse backgrounds. In
exposure at a higher level by playing in the D ivision this way, while T rinity at one end ‘fed’
111 to urnam ent o f the Cricket Board. Thus w as the
idea o f a club conceived a n d this w as the m o tiva tin g
fa c to r fo r the establishm ent o f the O. T S . C.

Convinced this was a good idea, I proposed the
form ation o f the O .T.S.C a t a General M eeting o f
the O.B.A. which was unanimously approved....
M r. Perera's intention to blood yo u n g T rin itia n s
at dub level yielded satisfactory results in the years
fo llo w in g .

Kxccrpts fr o m write u p s c u t in by I Lirindra Uiinuwillc. the system, at another, it also quietly
16tli ot‘ I Vbruarv 2 0 0 8 . subverted it. By creating opportunities

for a ‘T rinity education’ for students

who were not m eant to be its obvious

134

T T I K W O R I . l ) VVK W A N '

N o. 119 T ea Plucking, Ceylon

Above, left: S ir C u d a R atw atte, a T rin itian and one o f the last A digars o f C eylon, was a son o f A beyaratne R atw atte and father o f
K en n eth R atw atte (Sr.) w ho becam e a pioneer tea planter o f C eylon. Above, right: Postcard: A m id country tea estate w ith pluckers and

K angani (labour forem an) by Jo h n and Co. L td., Ceylon.

beneficiaries, and by arming every student with similar values, the school made it difficult
for the outside world to differentiate the student with obvious social advantages o f birth
and class from the one w ithout these privileges. This was Trinity’s master stroke: it
levelled the field for all students, and when it came to students moving into the world,
w hen it came to entering the private sector, the ‘Trinity background’ could outweigh
other prejudices. T rinity’s contribution to the private sector in Sri Lanka will remain an
essential aspect o f the school’s, as well as this country’s, history.

O ne o f the sectors that used to be conspicuously dominated by Trinitians was the
plantations. The first Trinitian to be employed by a plantation company in Ceylon was
K enneth J. Ratw atte in the m id-1940s who also served as President o f the Colombo
Branch in the ’60s. By the beginning o f the ’50s D enham de Alwis, Vernon Ratwatte
and D errick Nugawela had joined the list, making history as pioneers in a profession
that came to be associated with Trinity College, Kandy. D uring the heyday of the

135

T R IN IT Y

Above: S tudents w orking on the T rinity Farm .

plantations industry o f Ceylon, the majority o f the planters in the country had one
thing in common: their school. The reason, according to H . M alin Goonetileke, was
simple:*

Estates ran on trust. A planter had to display total integrity; after all it was
a job where you wrote out your own pay cheque. This integrity had to be
combined with sportsmanship and adaptability to the outdoors. Trinity
sportsmen grow up first learning to take orders from others and then learning
to give orders when they become team leaders. A nd the boarding school
environm ent prepared them for life away from home. A life o f isolation. The
plantation companies would call up the Principal w hen they had a vacancy
to fill.

In the late 1980s Malaysia recruited planters from Sri Lanka to pioneer a plantation
industry in the country. The three planters that the M alaysian government selected
were M ike de Alwis, Jayantha Ratnayake and H . M alin G onnetileke. They were all
Trinitians.

3 A u th o r in terv ie w w ith 11. M a lin G o o n e tile k e , S e c re ta ry G e n e ra l, The P lanters' Association o f Ceylon, C o lo m b o , Ja n u ary , 2 0 0 8 .

136

T H E V V O R E l ) VVE W A N T

Trinity continues to have a lasting impact

on its students in groom ing them to excel in

the professional world, in fields as diverse as

industry and commerce, medicine, law and

academia. In 1962, when M.V. M uhsin,

Senior Prefect and Ryde Gold medallist,

left Trinity, Principal Oorloff, handing

him his school leaving certificate called

him “the best Senior Prefect we have had

for many years. ” In the early ’80s, M uhsin

joined Zimco, the Zambia Industrial and

M in in g Cooperation, one o f the largest

conglomerates o f Sub-Saharan Africa, as

its G roup Finance Director, which was the

highest post held by a Sri Lankan in the

business sector in Zambia. D uring this

time. President Kaunda invited M uhsin

to be the Advisor on State Lnterprise and AbovefVn^ President o f Z am bia, Dr. K enneth Kaunda,
Reform for Zambia. As an advisor to an bidding farewell to M .V . M uhsin at a nationally televised
African Governm ent during its turbulent
and defining post-independence days, fe lic ita tio n cerem o n y h eld in M u s h in ’s h o n o u r 1988.

M uhsin contributed to the development of Zam bia’s economic policies. H e worked

closely w ith the country’s top leadership. Paying a tribute to M uhsin when he left

Zambia, President Kaunda wrote in a personal letter to him:

...thank you for your wonderful contribution to [our] development and
grow th...and your devoted service to the people o f Z am bia... W e are truly
sad to see you leave u s.. .this has not been an easy task but you have faced up
to these challenges loyally, and in the best interests o f Zambia.

A dding to this tribute was Zam bia’s Prime M inister, Kebby S. K. M usokotwane, who
wrote in June 1988:

137

r UINITY

I found your advice im peccable...! am so sad that you have to leave. You
created for yourself a name in our country. You have become part o f our
history. W e must praise our C reator for creating men like you who are able
to contribute to the im provem ent o f the tjuality of life o f people.

M uhsin left Zam bia to join the W orld Bank. W h e n he retired after 18 years o f service
in 2005 he was the only Sri Lankan to have held a post o f Vice President o f the
W orld Bank. As the organisation’s C h ie f Inform ation Officer he pioneered the use o f
Inform ation Technology at the Bank as a tool for social transform ation, prom pting
H arvard U niversity’s Business School to make a special case study o f the im pact o f his
work.

Speaking to the students at the T rinity Prize D ay as C h ie f G uest in 2008, M uhsin
described the influence the school had on him; “T rinity afforded me the opportunity to
dream bigger dreams for m yself than I im agined. M uch as the Principal has referred to
my so-called achievements, I can say that I scraped through my O -Level exams; I failed
my A-level exams twice, and I struggled through my C hartered Accountancy exams,
having failed the finals a few times! But I pressed ahead in the spirit o f our unyielding
m otto “Respice Finem .” Failure and success are two sides o f a coin and as we flip it,
the spirit o f Trinity helps us in K ipling’s words to m eet T rium ph and D isaster/A nd
treat these imposters just the same.”

Every year hundreds of students complete their secondary education at Trinity College.
Yet the preparation students receive to achieve professional success in the w orld is always
tempered, and its boundaries dem arcated by the ‘T rinity spirit’. As they go out into the
‘w orld’they take w ith them the enduring values o f the College, and the ‘T rinity spirit’is
lived out each day by the thousands o f O ld Boys scattered around the globe. W herever
they are in the world, for many Trinitians, certain values can never be compromised,
and acts o f service and a sense o f com m unity responsibility remain ingrained in their
personalities. According to Dr. Upatissa Pethiyagoda, “[i]n our contem porary fractured

138

I’lir. W O R M ) WF, W A N T

and w ounded society, the values inculcated by Trinity are best available balms and
m edications...In the youth insurrections of 1971 and the late 1980s, it is said that not
one Trinitian was im plicated.. .H um anity was definitely not negotiable."*”

Jayantha D hanapala, as one o f the school’s most distinguished O ld Boys, has embodied
this T rin ity spirit’, carrying it into every sphere of his life. His most memorable display
o f it was in his conduct at the race for the post of U.N. Secretary General, 2006. W hen
the Lanka M onthly Digest named him the Sri Lankan o f the Year, W ijith DeChickera,
E ditor o f the magazine, speaking to a distinguished gathering, said:

For the determ ination with which he conducted his campaign for our
country in the race for the U.N. Secretary-G eneral’s post, and the grace
with which he withdrew in the greater interests of our continent; indeed,
for a long and distinguished career on the global stage and numerous ways
in which he has used diplomatic opportunities in the corridors of power at
the courts of the world to present a favourable image o f Sri Lanka; also, not
least, for the sheer professionalism and grit with which he has represented
our island-nation abroad in the year under review - Jayantha D hanapala is
L .M .D .’s Sri Lankan O f The Year 2006.^

Like Jayantha D hanapala, m ost Trinitians have built the Trinity ethic into their lives and
because o f it are marked as professionals, whose contribution to the welfare of fellow
hum an beings has been above the call of everyday duty. Dr. Nagendra Charavanapavan
attended Trinity from the age of four years and went on to pursue a career in medicine.
H e is today the D istrict M edical Officer in Kazungulla D istrict in Livingstone, Zambia.
A general physician w ith specialisation in Clinical M edical Microbiology, his life has
been devoted to the care and treatm ent of A.I.D.S patients in his community where the
lack o f State funds and resources put a severe strain on the treatm ent available to the
patients. H e says,“A .I.D .S patients have to be carefully monitored, as the first medicines I
suggested, published at the W .H .O Conference, are not used widely, though effective.

4 Pethiyagoda, U patissa. Remembering Collegiate Ancestors in the Spirit o f T rinity.l\-\c Island, U pali N ew spapers, C olom bo,
Saturday 16th February, 2008.

5 D eC hickera, W ijith. Text given to author by D eC hickera, December, 2007.

139

T R IN IT Y

A Winner o fa Sales Campaign

For some students at Trinity, the spirit o f
entrepreneurship cam e naturally, b ut it was the school
that offered irresistible opportunities to practice
effective m arketing strategies! M a h in d a Ellepola
describes one very successful sales cam paign run by
his schoolm ate, R odney Jonklaas:'

Spookey h a d an excess o f p e t fis h a n d w hen
he w a n te d to sell them off, he w ould, on
Friday, p u t a little acid into the fish tanks in
the Biology section a n d on M onday, w hen the
fish werefo u n d dead, the Zoology teacher M iss
E d n a Wells w o u ld p le a d w ith Spookey to sell
some o f hisfish to the Lab.

1 A n ecdote sent by M a h in d a E llepola by em ail to
1lim cndra R anaw eera on th e 15th o f O cto b er 2007.

because of the costs. M ost people cannot afford 20 dollars per injection, twice a week,
for one year, and then for life at another dose. The present anti retroviral medicines
are also very expensive and 98 per cent o f patients cannot afford to get them privately,
The G overnm ent also cannot afford it, so they wait for donors to fund it and so far the
program m e is 50 percent O .K .” Charavanapavan’s w ork on A .I.D .S was discussed by
him in a paper on the treatm ent of A .I.D .S in 1989, read at the W .H .O Conference
in Marseille, France and, in 1995 ,he was offered membership w ith the New York
Academy of Science. Despite the constraints faced by medical professionals caring for
A.I.D.S patients, driven by a deep faith in Christianity, Charavanapavan and his wife,
Ranji, continue to search for ways to help patients. H e says, “I have been thinking o f
setting up a mission center to help some o f the patients, we are getting some land from
the Council at a price but the structure will cost money. M eanwhile I am w ith the
Government programme of helping these patients, mostly in the very remote areas we
call bush in A fric a...” In 1984 Charavanapavan was awarded the Dr. K enneth David
Kaunda Com m endation for work in the medical field in Zam bia.

140

T rinitians on an excursion to Sigiriya.
Overleaf: Steps, rising from one level to another, are an integral p art o f the architectural character

o fT rin ity C ollege, this school, built on the grad ien t o f a hill in the h eart o f K andy City.

Today, in the eyes o f the public, o f the socially conscious, the ‘Trinity spirit’ matters
m ost in the public arena. The need has come for more national leaders and professionals
w ho live and em body everything this spirit asks o f an individual. Throughout Trinity’s
journey across history, beginning as a missionary school that sketched its birth against
the tum ultuous backdrop o f ‘Kandy’s fall’, the College has remained constant in its
values. It has displayed at every turn that “look[ing] to the end”, needs to be inextricably
driven by the means to it. The ‘Trinity spirit’ is the thread that holds the varied years
o f the school together, and it is the force that defines the lives of the men it produces.
W herever the ‘Trinity spirit’thrives, the world is a better place.

V
LN'

lit

<e ,V>.'*‘^7*’ ■’»

i- .- . - f , ' - « i . 7 . > ! »

VIII

The More Enduring; the More Beautiful

Perhaps the m ost inspiring tim e to see the college com pound is in the
moonlight, when the silver seems to drip off the palm trees, making great
pools o f light - with hard black shadow rims, and the chorus o f the tropical
night echoes right up to the stars.

Campbell, 192V

T H E ‘AIRTS D IFFER E N T AT T R IN IT Y C O LLE G E , KANDY. The school is built on
a hill which slides down to the bustle o f Kandy Town at one end and rises to m eet the
serenity of Udawattekelk at the other. The surrounding landscape o f m ountain ranges
and primeval forests provide the backdrop to a region steeped in a unique cultural
heritage, w hich inspired the poets and artists at Trinity. “Fair in the hills the Kandyan
halls/ Proud hearths o f ancient nam e;... So after pain shall ye take again/ the Kandyan
H eritage,” wrote W alter Senior, the Vice Principal o fTrinity from 1906 to 1916. Senior
was called the Bard o f Lanka for his poetry about the Ceylonese countryside and its
people. His writing was the evocative response o f an outsider who realised he was unable
to fully grasp the land or the people he had briefly made his home:

I am tormented with an holy torment
In that I know not all the lore o fLanka,
Land o fheart's longing, leaving herforever.

Skill-less alas! o f either liquid language.
Tongues o fdeep music, Sinhalese and Tamil,

C am pbell (M rs), N.P.Campbell, W . 1 Icffencr & Sons, C am b ridg e, 1921, p 12.

144

A bovei'V nc'V vm ty College C hapel by R ajbu (60 cm x 90 cm)

T R IN IT Y

Little know I the pulse o fa People;
Know not the ancient Soul that built the cities.
Still-living Soul slow-seepingfrom the ruins:
I am tormented with an holy tormentP

The poetic response o f the Vice Principal to the countryside around him, to the need
to understand the “pulse o f the people” and Fraser’s particular approach to missionary
education, defined the school as an institution. The founders o f the College strove to
interlace lessons that could be learnt from the school’s environm ent into the students’
academic life. The rhythm o f the breathtaking natural landscape and the complexities
o f an ancient society were woven into the daily life o f this school based on the English
educational system. In this way. T rinity created ‘a world o f its own’ for the students;
a place o f many facets, different lives and interw oven cultures. Four o f Sri Lanka’s
most respected artists, David Paynter, George Keyt, D onald Ramanayake and Stanley
Kirinde, lived in this ‘w orld’at a formative point in each o f their lives.

David Paynter (1900-1975) and his elder brother attended T rinity during the 1^‘W orld
War. W hen his brother enlisted for W ar Service, Paynter too tried to join in, but was
immediately brought back by their father who proved to the Officers that Paynter had
shown false records o f his age. Paynter was sixteen at the time. A ccording to his sister,
Eve Darling, afterwards, he made a “dreadful nuisance o f him self”, and was eventually
expelled from Trinity College.® However, the College continued its relationship w ith
him, and D arling recounts the times they spent w ith Valesca Reim ann, a H istory teacher
at Trinity, camping on the banks o f the M ahaweli. O n leaving Trinity, Paynter spent
most of his hours devoted to painting. H e eventually won a scholarship to the Royal
Academy o fA rt in London, and used the opportunity to tour Italy, studying the work of
Renaissance artists. To this day, Paynter remains one o f the few Sri Lankan artists to
have work hung on the line at the RoyalAcademy.

2 Senior, W .S , V ita -M a g istra - Occasional Verse, C o lo m b o , 1983
3 D arling, Eve and A lbert D harm asiri. Paynter, Eve D arling, 1987, p.7.

146

r 1 11; M C) K I' K N O LI K I N G ; T 11 E. M O R E, 15 E, A U T 1E I J I ,

^ j j:

I (( A '-

n'f ''

7f

Above: “Self p o rtrait” by D avid Paynter, gifted by him to H ouse M aster R. R. Breckenridge.

W hen Paynter returned to Ceylon he joined the Staff of Trinity/ By then, the College
had begun work on its Chapel, and Principal M cLeod Campbell expressed his keenness
to have the Last L nd o f the H oly Trinity C hurch completed as soon as possible. O ne of
his reasons for wanting the work on the Chapel expedited was Paynter. He explained:

W e w ant to lose no tim e .. .partly because the Side-Chapel will be of greatest
value to us as soon as it is finished, partly because we w ant to avail ourselves
to the utm ost o f the services o f our A rtist, David Paynter.’

4 T a m m ita -D e lg o d a , S in h aR aja. The World o f Stanley K irinde, S tam fo rd E akc, C o lo m b o , 2 0 05, [i. 31
5 C a m p b e ll, M c L e o d . A Sinhalese C hapelfor T rin ity College. T rin ity C ollege P rin ters C lu b , Kandy. 1926, p. 11

147

T R IN IT Y

Paynter had already begun his sketches of the first mural for the C hurch when Campbell
appealed for the com pletion o f the East-end. The mural, w hich is in the C hapel o f the
Light o f W orld, captured the m om ent in M atth ew ’s G ospel where Jesus asks o f the
sons o f Zebedee, Are ye able to drink o f the cup that I shall drink? Paynter depicted the
mother of the sons of Zebedee, John and James, kneeling at Jesus’ feet. H is model
for the m other was his sister. Eve, and he set the Biblical story in a tropical country.
M onstrous, verdant creepers contrasted behind the C hrist in his yellow robe and papaya
trees formed part o f the rocky landscape. The faces o f those gathered around him bore
distinct South Asian features. The mural was com pleted in 1929 and, as early as in 1926,
Campbell said he felt the sooner Paynter was given another wall to work on the better
it would be for him. In 1933, Paynter com pleted his depiction o f the Crucifixion on the
wall above the m ain altar. H e painted the body o f the C hrist on the Cross as a careful
and dignified study of the hum an figure, but projected the agony o f the crucifixion on
to the landscape. The setting is a mangrove swamp, where the three crucified figures are
surrounded by trees w ith twisted roots and leafless, gnarled plants. Large boulders fill
the swamp. There is w ater all around the dying C hrist, b u t Paynter has evoked a sense
of unbearable thirst.

Paynter left Trinity after 8 years on its staff as a teacher o f A rt, Rugger and Boxing.
His relationship with the College and his work on the Chapel continued, and over the
course of thirty years he worked on two more murals. The mural above the pulpit, based
on the parable o f the Good Samaritan, was com pleted in 1957. H e returned in 1965 to
repaint the mural above the lectern o f C hrist washing the feet o f his disciples. As one of
Paynter’s contem porary colum nists observed: “C hrist is w ashing the feet o f his disciples
outside w hat looks like a kade in Periyakarachei (in Trincomalee).*^” H e used many
students and staff from the school as models, and if he saw a person w ith an arresting
face, a striking figure, on the streets o f Kandy, he asked them to pose for his murals.

According to Art Historian, D r SinhaRaja Tamm ita-Delgoda;

6 From A jith S am aran ay ak e’s a p p re c ia tio n for Paynter.

148

r 11E M O K E E N 1) U RI N G ; r i I !• M O R E B E,AUT 11'UI,

D a \id Paynter w orking on his m ural ye .. on th e S o u th ern wall o f the Side C hap el in 1929.

Essentially C hristian, his [Paynter’s] art was characterised by the careful
observation o f nature, good drawing and harmonious colouring.^

Paynter’s strength lay in his exposure to Renaissance A r t and his grounding in the
Academic Tradition^. H e drew inspiration from the environment around him into his
formal paintings and in doing so com plem ented the Chapel which had been built in
the vernacular.

O ver the years, the w eather left its mark on Paynter’s murals. The damp air and the
wind constantly beat into the open walls, damaging the murals and threatening to
destroy what had become an invaluable aspect o f the Chapel. Faced with the need to
arrest further destruction, the College turned to another one o f its former students to

7 T am m ita -D e lg o d a , S inhaR aja. The World o f Stanley Kirinde, S tam ford Lake, C olom b o, 2005, p. 31.

8 A uthor interview w ith Stanley Kirinde, A ugust, 2007.

149

TRINI'I'Y

Above: K ing N arendrasinghe and D ascon A digar, by Stanley K irinde, A ugust 2002.

restore the murals. They called in Stanley Kirinde.
“Trinity was a very strange place, you know,^”reminisces Stanley Kirinde, thoughtfully.
“It had students from every religion, and in my classes there were B uddhists, M uslim s,
Hindus, Catholics. No one was forced into a practice.. .there was no such thing. W e
accepted everybody the way they were. A nd we followed w hat we wanted. I came
from a very different background but nobody felt out o f place.” H is voice conveys the
respect he feels for the school for providing this atm osphere to its students.
Kirinde was born in 1930 to a deeply traditional Buddhist family in Deegala, a small

9 A ll q u o ta tio n s ot S tan ley K irin d e in th is sectio n are based on th e a u th o r ’s in te rv ie w o f K irin d e, o n th e 9 th o f A u g u s t 2 0 0 7

150