Trinity College, Kandy

Trinity College, Kandy is a private Anglican boys' school located in Kandy, Sri Lanka. It offers both day and boarding facilities. It was founded in 1872 by British Anglican missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, modelled on British public school tradition. Trinity offers primary and secondary education, and is a leading private school in Sri Lanka managed by the Anglican Church of Ceylon.
In 1857 the local Anglican community in Kandy urged the Church Mission Society (CMS) to establish a school for boys in the area. On 16 October 1857 the Rev. John Ireland Jones arrived from England, establishing the Kandy Collegiate School. The school operated for approximately six years.
In 1872 the CMS sent out the Rev. Richard Collins, the principal of the CMS Syrian College of Travancore to re-open the collegiate school in Kandy. On 18 January 1872, it was re-opened as the Trinity College and Collegiate School, with the Collins as principal and by the end of that year there were 120 enrolled students. The school library was opened in 1875. Early in 1877 the Collegiate School name was dropped and it simply became Trinity College. Rev. Collins left in 1878 and Thomas Dunn became acting principal of the school. In 1879 the college was affiliated with the University of Calcutta.
In 1880 the Rev. John G. Garrett was appointed as principal of the school and by the following year enrolments had increased to 238 students, with 30 boarders. In 1885 Garrett had to resign due to ill health and was replaced by the Rev. Dr. E. Noel Hodges, formerly the principal of the Noble High School, Machilipatnam. In 1889 Dr. Hodges was appointed as the Anglican Bishop of Travancore and Cochin and his post at Trinity was taken by Rev. Edward John Perry, who had been a master at Merchant Taylors' School. On 2 April 1890, Perry was accidentally shot dead near Alutnuwara, whilst on a visit to the Vedda people in the area. The Rev. J. W. Fall, who was the vice-principal, became the acting principal until the arrival of the Rev. Henry Percy Napier-Clavering, in June 1890. At that time Trinity had 298 students, of whom sixty-three were boarders.
In August 1900 Napier-Clavering resigned to return to England and attend to family matters. He was replaced by Rev. Robert William Ryde, who had previously been the vice-principal at the school from 1895 to 1899 before becoming the principal at St. John's College, Jaffna. Rev. Ryde held this post for a brief two years, leaving in 1902. In 1902 the Rev. J. Carter became the temporary principal followed by a succession of temporary principals, including the Rev. Napier-Clavering and the Rev. A. MacLulich.
On 5 November 1904, the Rev. Alexander Garden Fraser was appointed as the principal of the school. During Fraser's tenure he transformed a provincial school into a nationally recognised institution. His educational reforms included the introduction of Sinhalese and Tamil into the curriculum and increased its involvement in the local community. He was responsible for a number of building projects, including the Asgiriya Stadium and the Trinity College Chapel. He served continuously as the principal for eighteen years until 1922, his service was only interrupted by two years when he served as an army chaplain with the British Expeditionary Force in France during World War I.
The school was headed from 1925 to 1935 by Canon John McLeod Campbell (who later served as chaplain to the Royal Family). McLeod Campbell retired in 1935 and was replaced by Rev. Robert Stopford. Stopford was the last English-born principal of the school, remaining in the position for five years. He later became Bishop of London. During his tenure, the college hall was gifted by a former student, A. H. T. De Soysa. In 1940 the Church Missionary Society handed control of the school to an independent board of governors.
The board's first appointment was C. E. Simithraaratchy, the first old boy and Ceylonese-born principal, who ran the school from 1941 until 1951, including the Second World War years. His successor was Norman Sydney Walter, from 1952 to 1957. Walter returned to England and later became the headmaster of Loughborough Grammar School. The responsibility for the school was then passed onto Cedric James Oorloff (formerly the principal of Wesley College, Colombo) between 1957 and 1968. In 1968 E. Lionel Fernando became the second former student to be appointed as the school's principal. His tenure ran for nine years, until 1977. At which time W. G. Wickremasinghe (the principal of Carey College, Colombo) was appointed as principal of the school. He was followed by Lt. Col. Leonard M. De Alwis in 1988 who was responsible for the Pallekele Rugby Stadium. He administered the school until 1998 and resigned to take on the role as the inaugural principal of Springfield College, Kandy. De Alwis was succeeded by Warren Ranjithan Breckenridge. Breckenridge was a former student at Trinity and a professor of zoology at Peradeniya University, a post he held until 1998 when he was appointed the principal of Trinity. Following Breckenridge's retirement the college in 2003 appointed Roderick Gilbert as the school's principal. Gilbert, an Indian-born Englishman, who was previously the principal at the Hebron School in Ootacamund, India. Brig. Udaya Aryaratne was the principal from 2008 to 2015 and was succeeded by former vice principal Colin B. Ratnayake, as the acting principal until the appointment of Andrew Fowler-Watt in 2016.
Rev. Fr. Araliya Jayasundara OSB assumed the role of principal, succeeding Andrew Fowler-Watt, effective from 1 October 2020.
Trinity College and two other English missionary schools, namely S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia and Kingswood College, Kandy, and the state school Royal College, Colombo, had students who served in the First World War. Among the Trinitians, Aelian Perera was awarded a commission with the Durham Light Infantry and J. W. S. Bartholomeusz received the Croix de Guerre of the first class for his valour.
The World War I memorial of a German machine gun stands overlooking the quadrangle in front of the Alison house. The memorial is based on traditional Sri Lankan architecture and was unveiled on behalf of King George V on 16 October 1919 by Sir William Henry Manning, the Governor of Ceylon. The memorial commemorates the service of 65 former students and staff from Trinity, including principal, Rev. A. G. Fraser, who fought in the First World War.
The Governor in his commendatory tribute stated:
The centre of the memorial is a Maschinengewehr 08, which was captured from an enemy encampment. The machine gun was the first noteworthy war trophy gifted by the King to Ceylon. Trinity was the first school outside the United Kingdom to be so honoured.
The school song, "The Best School of All", was adapted from a poem composed by Sir Henry Newbolt in 1889 as a song for Old Boys of Clifton College in Bristol - his alma mater. The tune of the school song was composed by Lawrence Arthur Adamson, headmaster of Wesley College, Melbourne in 1907.
The words of the school hymn were composed by Walter Stanley Senior and is sung to the hymn tune, "Bishopgarth" composed by Arthur Sullivan for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Senior was the vice-principal at the college for ten years (1906–1916), he also deputised as acting principal for a short period in the absence of Alexander Fraser.
The crest's design draws inspiration from the crests of Clifton College, a boarding school influenced by Rugby School, and Trinity College at the University of Cambridge.
The Ryde Gold Medal is awarded each year to the "best all-round boy" at Trinity. The Ryde Gold Medal is the highest honour that the school can bestow. It is awarded on the result of a secret ballot conducted among the senior boys and the staff whose votes, together with that of the principal, each count as one. While this system makes deadlock possible, it is only on four occasions that the medal has not been awarded as a result of the three votes going to three different people. The medal cannot be won more than once.
The Ryde Gold Medal was first presented in 1908 to John Andrew, but he was not the first boy in the history of the school to be adjudged the best all-rounder. Historical records show that such a prize has been awarded as early as 1894. The Ryde Gold Medal is named after R. W. Ryde, a former principal of Trinity (1900–1902).
Notable winners of the Ryde Gold Medal include Dr Jayantha Dhanapala (1956), the former Under Secretary-General of the UN and senior special advisor to presidents Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapakse, former Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar (1949), former vice president and CIO of the World Bank; M.V. Muhsin (1962), first Ceylonese IGP and Ambassador Sir Richard Aluwihare (1915) and Sri Lankan Cricket Captain Kumar Sangakkara (1996).
The Trinity Lion is the most prestigious award a sportsman can achieve at Trinity. Rugby Lions were awarded in 1915, to A. Halangoda and R. Ondaatje. Since then there have been 129 Rugby Lionsmen (until 2004). Notable awardees of Trinity Lions include former Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar; former Lieutenant General Denzil Kobbekaduwa: Sri Lankan Cricketers Kumar Sangakkara, Ravi Ratnayeke, Olympic Silver Medalist Duncan White and former major general and Ambassador Niranjan A Ranasinghe. There has been one Triple Lion in Trinity's history which is Thushara Weerasooriya who achieved this feat in 1986 in Rugby, Cricket, and Athletics.
Trinity College rose into prominence as a Boarding School since its inception in 1872. The boarding system got referred to as the "Backbone of college". Often, well to do parents from all around Ceylon, the British Empire, and the world sent their children to the Trinity boarding. Royal families in Uganda, Gold Coast (Ghana), Brunei and Maldives, to respectable communities in China and the Middle East, boarded their children at Trinity in the days of old.
The senior school students are divided into five houses. Their names are derived from past principals and teachers of the college. There are three boarding houses, however, due to low numbers of boarders they collectively compete as the Central Boarding House. The houses are led by House Captains, competing in all major games to win the inter-house competitions.
The junior boarding accommodates students from Grades 4 to 7. In the past, 5-year-olds got housed in the matron's dormitory from where they went to the Junior School Boarding Houses, named after former principals Collins, Hodges and Perry. Between the junior and senior houses, the boarders got housed in a dormitory referred to as Squealary, which got further divided into Junior, Senior and Super. And within these houses, they had separate sections named after three well-known British Public Schools, Eton, Harrow and Rugby. Currently, the boarding does not issue admission to students below fourth grade.
During the 3rd rendition of the Annual Fraser Memorial Oration on 12 February 2024, The Trinity Story 1872 – 2022, a book providing a narrative of the life and times of Trinity as envisioned by the founding fathers and spanning 150 years, was launched. The first copy was presented to the principal.
Furthermore, the Trinity Digital History website was also launched. This website serves as a comprehensive digital archive of Trinity's historical records spanning from 1872 onwards.