Tribute To My Alma Mater- Kingswood College, Kandy

The 132nd Anniversary of the founding of the famous boys’ school in the hill capital, Kingswood College, Kandy by Mr. Louis Edmund Blaze’ fell on 04th May 2023. At the time the school was established, it was known as the Boys’ High School. All past and present students should be proud of the vast strides made by Kingswood during this period of over one and a quarter century from its very modest beginnings in Pavillion Street.

Mr. Blaze’, after obtaining his matriculation was recruited as a teacher in Trinity College, Kandy, his alma mater. However, after teaching for some time he left for Calcutta to read for his degree. After obtaining his degree he secured teaching appointments in Calcutta and Lahore, where he saw a great difference in the normal teacher-student relationship, which was much more friendly than what he was used to in Ceylon. On his return to Ceylon in January 1881, after his teaching stint in Calcutta and Lahore, Mr. Blaze’ dreamed of establishing a school of his own, a school to be different from what he had been used to as a student and a teacher, and to run it his own way.

Five months after his return to Ceylon, his desire to start his own school was fulfilled when the Boys’ High School was established in a small building in Pavilion Street, Kandy with 11 pupils on the roll. Mr. Blaze’ wanted his school to be one in which the friendliest relations would prevail between teachers and pupils after he had learnt of the cordial relationship in the English Public schools system which he came to know during his stay in Lahore.

He also wanted his students to be really educated in the right atmosphere and not to be trained to merely pass examinations. He encouraged a sense of obligation, duty and loyalty among the students. A testimony to this loyalty and manliness imbibed into his students by Mr. Blaze’ was the largest number of volunteers from Ceylon for service overseas during the First World War being old boys of Kingswood College.

In July 1884, Mr. Blaze’ handed over the management of the school to the Methodist Mission. In 1897, the school was registered by the Government as a Grant-aid school. There had been a rapid growth of the school during this period and therefore, this made it necessary to shift the school to a larger premises in Brownrigg Street which was done by the end of 1897. It was in 1898 that the Boys’ High School took the name of Kingswood College.

Mr. Blaze’ had learnt the game and the rules of rugby football when he was teaching in India, and it did not take long for him to introduce the game to his students. In 1893 Kingswood became the first school to start rugby football and later Trinity, Royal and other schools too took to the game. The first rugby football match between two schools in Ceylon was between Kingswood and Trinity at Bogambara grounds on August 11, 1906, and quite appropriately it ended in a six-all draw. While the Kingswood team was captained by HS Perera, the skipper of the Trinity team was PW Van Langenberg.

In sports, Kingswood assisted St. Anthony’s College, Katugastota to play the first football match between two schools , St. Anthony’s being the first school to introduce soccer to school. The Kingswood- Dharmarajah big match is the oldest big match in Kandy. Kingswood College had the distinction of producing the second schoolboy cricketer of the year in 1958 when Maurice Fernando, captain of cricket was chosen fro this award.

In 2005, a student of Kingswood, Ransilu Ranasinghe brought credit to his school and country when he won a Gold Medal for weightlifting at the Junior Commonwealth Games held in Australia, which was the first time that a sportsman from Sri Lanka had won a Gold Medal at an international competition of this nature.

Kingswood was one of the first schools to start cadetting. As in the case of rugger, Kingswood gave up cadetting after some time. A few years ago, cadetting was reintroduced and in 2004 Kingswood fared very well annexing the Herman Loos Trophy at the annual Diyatalawa camp.

In the early 1950s, a road safety program was begun where the senior students controlled the vehicular and pedestrian traffic on The Kandy-Peradeniya Road in front of the school. This experiment proved to be a tremendous success that later some of the other schools followed suit including leading girls’ schools. The first leader of the Road Safety Squad was successful in gaining selection to the Police Department on the basis of the experience he had gained in forming the squad and taking an active part in it.

Kingswood established traditions which none of the other schools in Sri Lanka had. Mr. Blaze’ established the tradition of reciting a prologue at the annual prize giving of the school. The prologue was written in verse describing the important events that had taken place that year in the school, country, and the world. Mr. Blaze’ himself wrote the prologue during his lifetime, and thereafter it was one of the old boys who did it, but maintaining anonymity. It is with a sense of pride that all Kingswoodians, past and present, would vouch that the prize giving has been held annually without a break. The then Governor-General, Lord Soulbury graced the occasion as the Chief Guest at the prize giving in the Diamond Jubilee year of Kingswood in 1951, which in fact was the last prize giving that Mr. Blaze’ attended.

The other tradition Mr. Blaze’ established was addressing the students as Gentlemen of Kingswood, which set a standard for each Kingswoodian to live up to. Mr. OL Gibbon, Principal from 1929 to 1937, had stated as follows in respect of this tradition, ” Kingswood College has a tradition that its students are Gentlemen of Kingswood regardless of religious or social background, they form a brotherhood, loyal to the highest ideals and keen to serve their families, their social circle and the nation.”

It was in the year 1925 that Kingswood moved to Randles Hill on Peradeniya Road, the location the school presently occupies. Kingswood was able to move into these premises through a very generous donation given by Sir John Randles, who was a Member of Parliament and a distinguished Methodist in England. This enabled to purchase the land and construction of the buildings. They included two for the upper and lower schools and two dormitories for the hostelers.

Kingswood had the distinction of being the first school a lady teacher on the staff when Mr. Blaze’ appointed the first lady to teach in Standard One and Two. At the beginning this appointment of a lady was criticized by those who were averse to change. But when it proved successful, other boys’ schools too followed suit.

I still remember that we had lady teachers from Baby Class to Standard four and they were the persons who really moulded the Gentlemen of Kingswood. The old boys who had been in Kingswood in the 1940s and 1950s would recollect with gratitude those gracious ladies, Miss Jacob (Baby Class), Miss Clements (Lower Kindergarten), Miss Thorpe (Upper Kindergarten), Miss Elias (Standard Two), Miss Lekamge and Miss Abrahams (Standards Three and Four) who taught with dedication, kindness and care as a service rather than a job. Their work did not end in the classroom; they inculcated good manners and habits like walking on the right hand side of the road where there are no pavements. Today one finds many walking on the wrong side of the road.

In addition to Mr. Blaze’ Kingswood had been served by some of the finest educationists in the land who continued the traditions introduced by him and some did even more. Messrs. OL Gibbon, MA Utting, PH Nonis and Kenneth M de Lanerolle were some of these stalwarts who contributed immensely towards the uplift of the students of Kingswood and the maintenance of its traditions.

Lest I forget, mention should be made of the other teachers who had taught at Kingswood with dedication and helped to mould the students into gentlemen before they ventured out into the world. We will never get teachers of the calibre of Messrs. CH Lutersz, DEA Shockman, BA Thambapillai, CV Abeyratne, AP Samarajiwa, JO Mendis, Winston Hoole, Sydney Perera, Anton Blacker and Leonidas James. And of course, Mrs. Arieth Perera and Miss Joyce Da Silva.

The dedication of the teachers during the time we were in school was such that the teachers who were good in sports coached the college teams free of charge. Whilst we had Messrs. Thambapillai, Hoole, Roy Abeysekera, RAV Dharmasena and Blacker in charge of cricket, Messrs. James and Sathananthan coached the athletes. Mr. James also coached the hockey team. He was so good in hockey that he was selected as the captain of the Kandy District team in the first Hockey Nationals held in Colombo.

Mr. Blaze’, with the knowledge of the English public schools that he had gained whilst teaching in Lahore, established the Houses in the school named after four of the most prestigious public schools in England, namely Eton, Harrow, Rugby and Winchester which are continued to this day. It is a credit to the school that the conducting of the affairs of the Houses are left entirely in the hands of the student captains and vice-captains.

The motto of Kingswood College “Fide Et Virtute” and the school song which begins “Hill throned where nature is gracious and kind” are two things that Kingswoodians past and present, cannot easily forget. The boys who pass through the portals of Kingswood College cherish the memory of the unforgettable time spent in school and the traditions and discipline inculcated in them during that time. The spirit of Kingswood is such that all those who have had their education at Kingswood express their appreciation by the sign “Kingswood for ever” (KFE).

HM NISSANKA WARAKAULLE