Ceylon & Sri Lanka Stamps Banknotes Coins, Royal College (1)

Collection of Stamps for Sri Lanka (& Ceylon before 1972). Collectors items related to Royal College. The Royal College Colombo (commonly known as Royal) was founded in January 1835. It is considered to be the leading Public School in Sri Lanka. It is a National School, meaning that it is controlled by the central government as opposed to the Provincial Council and provides both primary and secondary education. Royal College has produced many distinguished personalities, including 2 Presidents of two countries, a Sultan, three Prime Ministers and countless number of intellectuals. The school was founded by the Rev. Joseph Marsh, the acting Colonial Chaplain at St. Paul's Church as the Hill Street Academy in January 1835, as a private institution with 20 students, mainly from the upper class Burgher community situated at Hill Street, Pettah.



In January 4, 1836, the British Governor of Ceylon Sir Robert Wilmot-Horton, converted it, as the Colombo Academy, into a public school modeled on Eton College, with Marsh continuing as Head master. The oldest Public School on the island with the governor as its patron, it was intended to give to the children of leading Ceylonese an education which would make them fit to be citizens of the British Empire. In July 1836 the school was moved to San Sebastian Hill, Pettah, it would stay there for another 75 years before being shifted to Thurstan Road. In 1859 it was renamed Colombo Academy and Queens College and affiliated to the University of Oxford. In 1865 the Morgan Committee of inquiry into education recommended that it be reorganized and that scholarships should be awarded to study in Oxford.



It became the Colombo Academy once again in 1869. In 1881 it was renamed Royal College with the royal consent from Her Majesty Queen Victoria. The Gazette Notification giving Her Majesty Queen Victoria's approval to change the name of the school was appeared on July 31, 1881. With the introduction of free education in Ceylon in 1931 Royal stopped charging fees from its students thus proving education free of charge to this day. Old College Building (1911-1921)The school was originally at Maradana, right next to Hulftsdorp, but moved to San Sebastian, Pettah and then in 27 August 1913 the school was moved to its new building at Thurstan Road which is now the main building of the University of Colombo.



Ten years later on 10th October 1923 the school moved once again, this time to the newly built Victorian styled building on Reid Avenue, which it still occupies. This move was due the suggestion made by a higher education committee in 1914, witch suggested that Royal College should be converted in to a University College. Due to the objections made by members of the Royal College Old Boys Union, especially by the speeches made by Frederick Dornhorst KC, the Governor of Ceylon Lord Chalmers instead created a separate University College named University College Colombo, at the schools former premises which became the University of Colombo in the later years. In 1940 the school was again on the move this time due to the start of World War II in the far east.



The school was ordered to move out and the British Army moved in establishing a military hospital in the school buildings. Principal E.L. Bradby made sure the education of the students was carried on unhindered by moving the students in to four private villas (known as bungalows in Ceylon) at Turret Street, Colombo and shifting the 1-3 forms to Glendale bungalow in Bandarawela where it was till 1948. After the war the school was relocated to its old home on Ried Avenue, Colombo. In August 1977 the Royal College Preparatory School was amalgamated to Royal College forming the school's primary school, with it came the county's only national theatre at the time the Navarangahala.