Blue & Gold
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Royal Primary School Class of 1953 -
Floreat Royal College Group of '59 - Disce aut Disce de |
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BEGINNINGS
PEOPLE MKJ Cantlay(Canto) ECG (Kataya) Video
Clip II
EVENTS Royal-Tho
IN
MEMORIAM Wilhelm
Koch (Aus) S Selliah Thusitha Cooray (RPS) Mahinda Jayasinghe (RPS) Punyasiri Kiriella (RPS) 1999 Naween Rajapakse (RPS) Radha Rajaratnam D Mahinda Jayasinghe 2002 Aubrey
Willis (RPS 1953) UK C J L Wijersatne H A S S Bamunawela (RPS) 2004 Iqbal Najumudeen (RPS 1953) 2005 J Satchithananthan P Chandrakanthan (Canada) Sarath Ambepitiya 2008 Rama Sellamuttu (RPS 1953) 2009 Priyananth Dias (Dec 25) 2010 S. L. Gunasekera (Jan 14) Sunil Abeysundera (Apr 12) Robert S
Daniel (Sep 8, Aus) 2011 2012 2013 2014 S W Athukorale (Dec 9) 2015 Sydney
Goonesekere
(Sep 27) Gamini de
Silva (Ketty) (Oct 12) 2016 H
P Kariyawasam (Mar
16) 2017 Suren Chitty
(Jan 6) Asoka
Waranasuriya (May 21) L
Lathpandura (2015,
USA) Ranjan Madanayake (Dec 30) 2019 Mahadevan Balakumaran (Jun2) Vishwa Vedage (Jun 4) Ananda Mallikarachchi (Dec 4) 2020 Nihal Abeysena (Jan 23) DER
Hapuarachchi (Dec 9) 2021 Shirzad T Aziez (Mar 24) 2022 Russel Geddes
(Jan 18) OZ S
Rathnathicam (Feb 4)
USA M Ranjan Fernando (Feb 7) SL
Tuan
Arif Kitchil (Jan 17) SL Mazher FazleAli (Jan 21) SL
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Beginnings Royal Primary School 1953 - 1958 It was the year 1953. Most of us were just five years young as we walked into Class 1C at Royal Primary School that cool January morning. The English medium class was greeted by Ms E.B. Croning, stern and smiling, trying hard to accommodate all her students into their correct places in the little wooden colored chairs that were placed neatly around rectangular shaped colored tables. Parents and Guardians were all crowded at the door seeing that their children were being handed over. Many cries of anguish and fear accompanied by wailing and tears permeated the morning air. It was the first day at RPS for the Class of 1953. What a wonderful beginning to a life of learning, books, and playing the game. May it flourish (Floreat) was the motto. Life was fun as we moved on to the next year, 1954, at 2C with Ms Dorothy Perera, the next in 1955, 3C with Ms Dissanayake (Nanayakkara circa 1957), then 1956 4C with Mr V. Pingamage (Pinka), 1957 5C with Mr ABC David (affectionately known as Apple Beetroot Carrot),and finally 6C in 1958 with Mr J.E de Silva (Jadi). Other teachers who had a significant impact in our lives through these six years of primary education were, Major AF de Saa Bandaranaike (Banda, the then Principal), Mr H.D. Sugathapala (Sugar, who took over later as Principal), Mr H.W. Jayawardena (Jaye), Mr Piyasena (Vathey), Ms Nicholas of the Music & Singing room, Carolis the bell ringer, and, most of all, the mouth-watering vendors, Kadaley and Bella at the gates selling their mango, gram, bubble gum and other niceties of a boy's life. Almost forgot to mention the Alerics Ice Cream man with his variety of flavored popsicles. Royal College 1959 - 1966
January
1959 saw an exodus of a band of young men, from the
playful wonders of a maypole swinging primary
education, into the serious depths of secondary
school, Royal-Thomians and Bradby
Shields. A majority of the group came from Royal
Primary School while a select band of exemplary men
came from a mixed bag of many other Colombo and
outstation schools. Thus a complete change in life
for the boys of the Class of 1953 at Royal was
taking effect. The minds
of the young men had a mixed bag of feelings. It was
more like graduating from wearing shorts to long
trousers, feeling the majesty of College in their
hearts and minds, and most of all, being pleased to
have crossed that hurdle that many crave to achieve. A whole new
life awaited us and we surely looked forward, in
great amazement, to
a brave new world of many wonderful days to come.
The sadness of having to part with some of those who
could not make it was mixed with the joy of new
faces, friendships, learning, and a new lease of
life within the hallowed corridors of honor and
pride to a place where our fathers had learned the
ways before us, learned of books and learned of men
and learned to play the game. The mighty
victory roar of "R*O*Y*A*L
- Royal!" would ring on forever in
our warm hearts and minds. We were so
many in Form I that the
classes were divided into six Groups, 1A to 1F. Some
of the class teachers as we remember were, Capt.
(later Brevet Lt-Col. & JP) M.K.J. Cantlay e.d. (Canto, 1A), Mr V. Sivalingam (Siva 2D), Mr
M.M. Alavi, Mr R.I.T. Alles (Rita), Mr Abdeen, Mr Justin de Silva
(Lincoln, 1F) and of course the Headmaster of the
Junior School, Major C.P. de A Abeysinghe
(CowPox). The principal
of the Senior School at that time was Mr Dudley K.G.
de Silva, a man of great personality, stature,
discipline, and well earned respect, whose
dedication and commitment to Royal, and to us, is
something that we will never forget It would be
failing on our part, at this juncture, not to
mention two significant personalities of that era,
Mr Bogoda Premaratne (Vakuts) (Vice Principal) and
Mr E.C. Gunasekara (Kataya) whose impact on all
our lives is something we cannot equate materially.
No doubt all the other members of the teaching and
administrative staff played an important role in our
lives at some point or another during those
wonderful years at Royal. Other names
of those wonderful mentors who nurtured us through
our academics at RC, are E. St. Elmo de Bruin, Viji Weerasinghe
(now chain-smoking and ably manning the Royal
College Old Boys' Office); Ratnayake
(Ghandi), V. Arasaratnam, the math
Guru; S. Gulasekaram
(Thosai); Hari C. Arulanandan (Cut-throat),
drinking tea in a beaker; MT Thambapillai
(Thamba); Muttiah; Rajendran; Shanmugaratnam; V. Menon (Pope); Weerasingham (Blackie); Sabaratnam (Half-soda);
(Kota) Silva; Attanayake;
Sawaad; Rupesinghe (Ruperty); EFC Perera; Mrs Samarasekera
(Madam); Teddy bear of the Metal Work shop fame
(can't remember his name); (Kos) Dias; J. Henry de
Saram; R. Ratnathickam (Rat); A. Canagaratne; Thavaneetharajah (Thavam);
"R*O*Y*A*L
- Royal!"
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