Kingswood: Opening of the Kindergarten and the Shift to Peradeniya Road.

The following excerpts are from the preliminary chapter (“A General Survey – Peradeniya”) of Louis Edmund Blaze’s KFE: The Story of Kingswood Kandy (pp. 30-38), which documents the author’s reflections of Kingswood’s first twenty five years.

On the 13th October came the Rev. William Goudie, Missionary Secretary, and President-elect of the Wesleyan Conference, on an official visit, accompanied by a Mathodist layman, Mr. Robert Simpson. Much was hoped from this visit… and no one could be more keenly and heartily sympathetic than Mr. Goudie. “I want to assure you,” he wrote in August 1921, “that Kingswood lies very heavy on my heart, and though we may have to be patient for a few months longer, I am in good hope of your securing all that you ask – a suitable appointment as principal and the necessary funds for a new site and a new building.” To our great sorrow, Mr. Goudie died in April 1922…

Rev. William Goudie.

… In May 1920 the Rev. A.S. Beaty ceased to be Manager… The Rev. John Eagle succeeded, and events moved fast. The “House System” was adopted by us in June 1922, the Houses being named after Eton, Harrow, Rugby, and Winchester. An “Advisory Council” for Wesleyan schools had been established early in 1921, and the Committee of that Council for Kingswood was not idle. A Kindergarten was decided on. Miss S.P. Marshall, Principal of Princess of Wales’ College, came up to advise us on the matter, and encouraged us greatly by the arrangements she suggested. On her recommendation and that of Miss Carter, Inspectress of Schools, Miss Nancy Fernando, a trained teacher, was appointed in charge of the Kindergarten, which began its work in January 1923. Miss C. De Sylva assisted in this department, which carried on in the rooms left vacant by the removal of the Girls’ High School to Katukelle. Some others of our classes too went to the vacated rooms, and the pressure due to lack of space was greatly relieved.

But the problem of a new site with new buildings was not so easily solved. It will have been observed that all along more and better accommodation became necessary as the School grew, and the accommodation in the Brownrigg Street premises was certainly not what it should have been…

… Not to go back too far, Dr. [James Hope] Moulton wrote in 1917: “We may be as proud of the School as ashamed of the buildings – and that is saying great deal.” In the “Foreign Field” for February 1918 the Editor wrote: “Our Kingswood College at Kandy has for some years been carrying on a really good work in most inadequate premises; in fact, dormitories for the Boarders had to be commandeered for classrooms.” Mr. Goudie reported early in 1922: “The School, however, is miserably housed in old, inadequate, and dilapidated buildings in the heart of the town. We have postponed consideration of this scheme so long that the case is urgent and calls for immediate action. We must provide for the School a new building on a new site on the outskirts of the town.”

Edward Brandis (EB) Denham

The comments of the Education Inspectors in their annual reports may be summed up in Mr. Denham‘s frank outburst when he last spoke from a Kingswood platform: “I consider Kingswood most inadequately housed and extremely badly equipped. It is no reflection on the Principal, as it is largely a matter of finance; but it has to be remedied. Work is being done in difficult circumstances… As they stand, the buildings are more fir for a Night School. Yet I can say that more daylight is let into education in this School than perhaps any other school of the same size in Ceylon. If it’s buildings cannot face the light of day, its spirit is a light, an illuminating force, which gives the dingy and dismal surroundings a character of its own – modest, retiring, regardless of outward show.”…

… Nor must this fact be overlooked, that our Managers were keener than even those within the School itself to obtain suitable accommodation. The scheme first proposed was to pull down the existing buildings in Brownrigg Street and to replace them by a large two-storeyed building. Plans were drawn up by Mr. A.M. Spaar, and a Building Fund was started. In 1916 the Wesleyan Missionary Society in London gave us a grand of 666 pounds and we hoped to collect Rs. 10,000 locally. But doubts soon arose as to whether we should build on the old site or find a roomier and less crowded location. Mr. Denham wished us to be in close touch with the Department of Agriculture, and suggested Peradeniya. Ampitiya and Getambe were also explored; and at last the land on Peradeniya Road, known as “Solomons Gardens”, was selected and purchased with a grant of 4000 pounds from the Society’s Centenary Fund. The land belonged at one time to the father of W.H. Solomons, and was often visited by the young people of the seventies and eighties in their morning walks…

… When Solomons Gardens was secured, new plans were drawn up by Mr. A.M. Spaar, and it was estimated that the new buildings, with the proper equipment, would cost Rs. 200,000. This was the grim problem which now faced us; but at any rate we would make a start, and build as money came in. Imagine, then, the astonishment and joy felt by all of us when it was announced that a gift of 10,000 pounds (nearly Rs. 150,000) had been made to the Society by Sir John Randles, M.P., a distinguished Wesleyan Methodist in England…

… The amazing liberality of Methodist laymen in England towards their Church is almost proverbial, and a subject of wide comment. Sir John Randles has not been the least generous of many generous givers, and this is how he was led to endow Kingswood, when he offered 10,000 pounds to the Wesleyan Missionary Society:

Sir John Scurrah Randles

“I wanted to do something that would be for the greater glory of God, and the good of my fellow-men in some part of the globe where the British flag flew, but not at Home in Particular. I had heaps of projects and plans put before me. I am not a learned man. I am not clever; but I think I have a little of the commercial instinct within me, and my instinct told me that I must put my money in the right place, where value would be received and good results follow. And of all the projects laid before me, the project of Kingswood seemed to be the most opportune and desirable… If at the old Kingswood so much good could have been done, so much of value could have been achieved, surely, with better opportunities it seemed to me a desirable place to put down some money and help people who were willing to help themselves.”

On 31st December 1923 my official connection with Kingswood came to an end.

KFE: The Story of Kingswood Kandy was originally published in 1934. This excerpt was taken from the book’s current edition in use, published in 1994.

Kingswood: Brownrigg Street Days

The following excerpts are from the preliminary chapter (“A General Survey – The Spencer Period”) of Louis Edmund Blaze’s KFE: The Story of Kingswood Kandy (pp. 14-23), which documents the author’s reflections of Kingswood’s first twenty five years.

Mr. Ernest Handscombe Spencer was the son of English parents holding a high social position in the rather exclusive military cantonment in Jullundur in the Punjab. He was educated first at the Bishop Cotton’s School, Simla, and came with two brothers, in January 1885, to the Anglican Boys’ High School, Lahore, where I had just taken up duties as Second Master…

… In August 1897, we in the Kandy School were in a very difficult position. We were losing two of our Teachers and a Senior Master was urgently needed…

Ernest Spencer

… In this dilemma I wrote to Mr. Spencer, who was at the time an Assistant Master in the Anglican School at Agra, asking if he could see his way to joining us. With characteristic chivalry – it could be nothing else – he readily consented, and arrived here on the 21st September 1897. He took to the boys, and the boys took to him. He had a winning personality and a gift of anecdote. He would hold groups of boys entranced with stories of adventurous life in India, or with more modern tales of chivalry and romance. He would read, or impressively recite, night after night, to our half-a-dozen boarders such poems of action as “The Fight”, or “The Revenge”, or the “Ballad of East and West”. He would teach the boys to sing new hymns and songs… Local concerts and a number of other activities outside the School found in him a skillful organizer and manager. Evening after evening he would go down with the boys to the Bogambora Green or the Barrack Square to play football or cricket with them. It was he who organized and carefully supervised the School annual sports, and the first Challenge Cup was presented by himself. He was lavishly generous in his gifts…

… The rooms in Pavilion Street had now become too small for our increasing numbers, and Mr. Prince tried to find suitable premises for what might be a “permanent” home for the School. A house in Brownrigg Street was eventually secured “at a cost of Rs. 10,000 the purchase money being found by the District, and the School paying interest thereon”. In front were the military Officers’ Quarters, and the traffic on the street was not noticeably large. The house was one of two built some fifty years before by Mr. William Staples, advocate, and it was once occupied by Messers. George Wall & Co. as their business office. In 1897 it was occupied by Messers. Pate & Son. A few of the most necessary alterations were made, and the School began its new term there on Wednesday, the 12th January 1898. The Principal and his family lived in a portion of the house.

Methodist Church today on Yatinuwara Veediya (Brownrigg Street of yore)

What we required most urgently was an Assembly Hall and a Dormitory for boarders. A loan, collecting cards, a Cantata (“A Daughter of Moab”) got up by Miss Eaton all went in aid of the Building Fund. The Easter holidays saw the building in progress, and on Monday, the 27th June 1898, the Hall, though still incomplete, was formally declared open. There was no public ceremony. The School assembled in the usual way, and there came also Mr. and Mrs. Prince, Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Eaton, Miss Eaton, Mr. J.B. Blaze, Mr. W.D. Gibbon, Mr. A.M van der Straaten, and Miss Lawrence, the very popular Principal of the Girls’ High School…

… Much money was still needed. A Fancy Bazaar was held in the Hall on Saturday, 12th November 1898 in which an amusing feature as the “Art Gallery” of deceptive “pictures” for which Mr. Spencer, P.W. van Langenberg, and Tom Marshall were responsible. A couple of lectures given later were helpful: Mr. F.J. Wayman, Editor of the “Ceylon Standard”, on “Public Opinion – its Development and Results”; and Mr. H.W. Cave on “The Ruined Cities of Ceylon”

It was at this time that the School Committee decided on a distinctive name for the Boys’ High School, and on Mr. Prince’s suggestion the name at length adopted was Kingswood, after John Wesley’s well-known school. A name of our own with local associations was greatly to be preferred, but matters were rushed through in order that an announcement might be made at the opening of the Hall. The simpler terms School and Head Master, which had hitherto been used, gave way to College and Principal.

Mr. Prince left Kandy in March 1899 with a record of useful work done at a crucial stage in our history. He was succeeded by the Rev. W.H. Rigby as Manager, and the Rev. P.R. Willenberg again as Secretary of the Committee. Some notable additions were made to our staff. Mr. C.J. Olivier, a graduate of the Madras University, took charge of our Senior Mathematics, and then of other classes also. Robert De Alwis taught for five years, and his literary gifts found scope in the School Magazine where he gave us interesting articles on Sinhalese folklore. Mr. E.F.C. Ludowyk’s three years were a great help with his stormy energy and practical wisdom…

… A grant from the Wesleyan Missionary Society in London enabled Mr. Rigby to put up the small Dormitory, which was opened in January 1901, and soon tenanted. Mr. R.F. Crowther planned the Dormitory and supervised the building of it without any charge to the School. He was warmly attached to the School and took a keen interest in it, an interest which ceased only with his death in England in 19–…

Kingswood School in Bath after whom Boys’ High School Kandy was re-named in 1898

… An experiment, quite new to Ceylon, was made in January 1902, when Miss Annie Bartholomeusz was appointed to the charge of Standards 1 and 2. Today, lady-teachers are found in nearly all boys’ schools and their work is not limited to the lower standards; but the formal appointment we made to our regular Staff in 1902 evoked much comment and some unfavourable criticism. Miss Bartholomuesz continued with us for nearly seven years, and was of the highest character…

… Another experiment was made at this time by Mr. Burrows, which affected other schools as well, in the formation of the Cadet Battalion of the Ceylon Light Infantry. Mr. Burrows did much for Education in Ceylon…

Miss Lawrence, Principal of Girls’ High School (1890-1900)

… Mr. J. Harward, who became Director in 1903, took as great an interest in us as was shewn by his predecessor. He was always ready to give us helpful advice and guidance. He presided at our prize-giving the next year, the year in which the Kingswood Union of Old Boys and Teachers was founded. A bold step was taken by Mr. Harward in 1905 when he arranged for Drawing Classes to be held in Kandy. It was only fair that some of the educational advantages enjoyed by Colombo students should be extended to others and a weekly class was started in Kandy and held at Kingswood, under the direction of Mr. A. Bartlam, of the Technical College. The first of these classes met on Wednesday morning, the 17th May 1905, with 27 teachers from various Kandy schools. School children began to attend from June, and the classes continued to be held for two years…

Rev. A.G. Fraser, Principal of Trinity College (1904-1924)

… Mr. (now Rev.) A.G. Fraser’s arrival in Ceylon in November 1904 resulted in a closer and friendlier association with Trinity College. Are not his doings worthily recorded in Miss V. Reimann’s “History of Trinity College” (1922)? He received a tumultuous welcome when he sang a “topical” song at a Concert of ours in June 1905, and introduced two verses in which his sympathy and friendliness found expression.

At the end of 1906 Mr. Spencer left us to return to India. He came back five years afterwards, in May 1911 and worked with us for a few months. But his health failed, and on the 25th September his loyal spirit passed away. His name will be held in grateful memory by all who knew him, and will be perpetually honoured, we trust, in the School he loved so dearly and served so devotedly.

KFE: The Story of Kingswood Kandy was originally published in 1934. This excerpt was taken from the book’s current edition in use, published in 1994.

Kingswood: The Beginnings

The following excerpts are from the preliminary chapter (“A General Survey – The Beginnings”) of Louis Edmund Blaze’s KFE: The Story of Kingswood Kandy (pp. 6-11), which documents the author’s reflections of Kingswood’s first twenty five years.

The Founder

The school was opened at No. 11, Pavilion Street, Kandy on the 4th May 1891, as a Private School but with the intention that it should be worked, as far as was possible to us, on the lines of the old English Public Schools. There could be no ancient or splendid buildings, of course, or modern equipment, or spacious playgrounds, or inspiring traditions; but the tone and temper, the sense of honour and the obligation of duty – even the boyish mischief – described in so many books and magazines, might well be encouraged, even in a humble degree, in the boys of Ceylon.

The name given to it was The Boys’ High School, and the Notice issued to the public was dated the 6th April 1891. Private Schools were not then in much favour with the residents of Kandy, for such schools were usually short-lived arrangements for the convenience of law students and others. Besides Trinity College, which then had the Rev. Napier-Clavering as its newly-arrived Principal, there were at least three other well-established schools in Kandy; but from the beginning we disclaimed the absurd idea of competition with the established institutions, and we sought to live on the friendliest terms with them…

… It must be born in mind that in 1891 Kandy Town had a populations of only 23,000 which in the next ten years increased by only 3,600. The Kandyans were still indifferent to, or suspicious of, the benefits of Western education. The failure of the coffee industry had brought on a severe depression, only lifted by the gradual rise of the tea industry.

The house in Pavilion Street, which had been untenanted for some time, was secured for us by Mr. J.W. Samaraweera, and the furniture, consisting of a few desks and benches, was provided by Mr. J.B. Blaze. These two were the earliest and warmest supporters of the new venture, and, indeed, it was largely on their advice that the venture was made. Other friends who came to us later were Dr. F. Keyt; Mr. J.H. Barber, who drafted a prospectus for the school; Mr. J. Dunbar Jonklaas; Mr. J.B. Siebel, a constant contributor to the School Magazine when it was started; and Mr. H.M. van Cuylenberg, who interested the “Ceylon Independent” in our favour.

There were eleven pupils present on the opening day – E.T. and H.R. Garnier, Irwin Sylvester (from Lahore), A.C.B. and E.G. Jonklaas, J.D. Blaze, J.H. Siebel, J. Stainton, and Edward, J.C., and J.E. Grebe. Two days afterwards came W.E. Barber and W.C.R. Greve. Several other young gentlemen were soon added to our numbers who could not help making things somewhat livelier. Among those admitted during our first year were: A.E. Perera Wanigatunge, H. van Lynden Wallbeoff, F. Keyt, C.C. Barber, W.E. Gratiaen, Fred Newman, C.F. Wilkins, A.W. Gray, Herbert van Dort, Paul and Arthur Hawke; during the second year: James Newman, Percy, Victor, Lloyd, and Hugh van Langenberg, G.P. Keuneman, St. John and Claude Jonklaas, L.M. Wilkins, W.T. Samaraweera, Angus H. de Silva, P. Ambrose, James Gray, Edgar White, Hussain Sirray (Egyptian), and H.A. Ebert; and during the third year: A.E Whatmore, A.E.A. Poulier, Ibrahim and Ali (sons of Arabi Pasha), R.W. White, and Ali Foad (son of Toulba Pasha).

The holiday periods were a month each at Easter, Midsummer, and Christmas. The Tuition fees charged monthly were: Classes I-III, Rs. 2.00; IV and V, Rs. 4.00; VI, Rs. 6.00; Cambridge Junior, Rs. 7.50; Cambridge Senior or Calcutta Entrance, Rs. 10.00. No reduction was made for April or other holiday periods. These fees were somewhat higher than those charged elsewhere.

The Pavilion Street rooms in later times

The school hours were from 10.30 a.m. to 4 p.m., with an interval of half an hour for tiffin. The Registers of admission and of attendance, as furnished by the Government, were used by us in strict conformity with the rules, and the requirements of the Government Code of Education were followed as closely as possible…

… Rugby football was begun in our first year, and regularly played till the Association game gradually took its place, and the Bogambora green became available for cricket practice. Football matches at Matale were an occasional change, and we had picnics at Peradeniya. We collected money for the Mauritius Cyclone Fund in 1892. A Debating Class met for the first time in March 1893 and in the same month a large two-page leaflet was issued as a School Magazine. Altogether, we were a fairly happy and clubbable company with Education rather than Examination as the rule of the school…

… By 1894 the School may be said to have established itself. Mr. H.D. Jansz, who now flourishes in the Malay States, was our first Assistant Master, and Mr. C.A. Perera Wanigatunge came later for a couple of months. The Rev. L.E. Cox, of St. Paul’s Kandy, and since Archdeacon of Madras, came once or twice a week for Scripture lessons to the Senior Boys. When he left Kandy, the Rev. H. Bray, his successor, continued the lesson for a short time.

Engraving on Pavilion Street (current Deva Veediya)

More than once I had been invited to place the School under the management of the Wesleyan Mission, but to this I was strongly averse, as complete freedom of action and of policy was of the essence of our well being. However, an agreement was arrived at, and on the 1st July 1894, the management was transferred to a Committee representing the Mission. The members of this Committee were the Rev. A. Triggs, Superintendent of the Circuit (Manager), the Rev. P.R. Willenberg (Secretary), Mr. J.W. Samaraweera (Treasurer), and Messers. J.H. Eaton, J.B. Blaze, and R.M. Smith. The Principal was added to the Committee in August 1895. It is a pleasure to record that from the missionary Managers we received ready encouragement, and from most of them wholehearted sympathy and assistance. It is possible that one or two of them may have doubted, as most people did in fact doubt, if the school could prove a success… But they were helpful and considerate and alive to the interests of the School which continued its work in the way in which it was begun…

… We had Cambridge Local Classes, and also prepared students for the Calcutta University and the local Law Entrance examinations. In 1895 the School was “recognized” by the Calcutta University as qualified to present pupils for the Entrance examination, and in 1896 it was registered in Ceylon as a Grant-in-aid School. The first Government examination was held in April 1897… Sixty boys were examined. In the compulsory subjects the percentage obtained was 82, and in all subjects 76. In the same year S. Don James headed the list of successful candidates for the Vernacular Teachers’ License. Next year he won the first “Diamond Jubilee Prize” for proficiency in Sinhalese Language and Literature, heading the list in both sections. It is fair to add that his success was due to his own exertions, as Sinhalese did not form part of our curriculum.

In September 1897, when we were still at Pavilion Street, Mr. E.H. Spencer came to us from India as Second Master.

KFE: The Story of Kingswood Kandy was originally published in 1934. This excerpt was taken from the book’s current edition in use, published in 1994.