Richmond College

Richmond College is known for the excellence of its academic and extra curricular activities. More than 3,700 students-and an excellent academic staff-pursue their classroom studies, and co-curricular interests in ways that are demanding and intensely rewarding. Here, on a beautiful hill among the lush greenery with blooming flowers, students learn to do productive and innovative work that makes a positive difference in the country-that's what Richmond is about. The gift of a Richmond education is the freedom to discover what you love to do and then to get better at it and I got it five decades ago. Established as an elementary school in 1814, then made an Anglo-vernacular school, by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionaries it is today known as Richmond College. Why do people say Richmond started in 1876? Is that year correct or was it otherwise? Curiosity got the better of me and meticulous research spread over almost four years, resulted in astounding findings. It appears we have mixed up three important events in our history, date of birth, date of upgrading and date of renaming. To put it briefly, the pioneer Missionaries started an elementary school to teach English and scripture in 1814 at Dickson Road, Galle. Thirty years hence the need for a superior school to keep pace with changing times was felt. To the credit and untiring efforts of two missionaries the Mission headquarters in England sanctioned the establishment of a superior school in 1874. In 1876, having absorbed students and the Staff from the former Anglo-vernacular school and with new enrollments to make a student population of 104 students, the upgrading took place in 1876. Since the upgraded school was on Richmond Hill a decision was made to rename the school Richmond College in 1882. Thus what was the birth date of Richmond - 1814, 1876 or 1882? This website is the result of extensive research in an effort to traverse history in time to the beginnings of Richmond. In other words unearthing the "The forgotten history of Richmond". Have we lost an important part of our identity by not representing the years from 1814 to 1876? Did we choose to ignore that part of the history? Or was it ignorance? We have punched a big hole in our history due to ignorance and apathy, knowingly or unknowingly. In the process we have forgotten those founding fathers and those who nurtured the school until it was upgraded to a superior school. Whatever the explanation is, the period 1814 to 1876 is important as it too is part of our heritage. It is sad that for generations we did not know the birth of the school was in 1814 and who our founding fathers were. If not for them there would not have been a school to become Richmond of today. We have lived with this notion not knowing that the College had its beginnings in 1814. Sadly that part of the history from our inception by our founding fathers has been ignored and it is a terrible oversight that must be rectified even at this stage. It is not late to maintain our true beginnings and heritage. nless we correct this mistake in time to come that part of the history will be lost for ever. e ourselves wondered why this was not corrected before but could not find any reasons. Perhaps no one thought it was that important.One may ask, then why now? The simple answer is "it is also a part of our history and heritage" that we are proud about. It took several years of research and it was indeed an uphill task in finding irrefutable evidence to be convinced that the precursor to Richmond was born in 1814. With convincing information found, now running into more than 150 publications and records of the Mission, this website was conceived. Constructing the website took more two years with more than half a dozen revisions as more and more documentation were unearthed. In end of June 2011 it went live. Since the site went live in June, more evidence was found about the history and it became necessary to add new information to the site. Also many enthusiastic old and present boys made the request to make it easy to read. A new version replaced the first version re-written incorporating the new found material. We found some more interesting material during the past month. We believe that what is presented here is enough proof to conclude that the school was founded in 1814. There is no intention of overhauling the site anymore unless we find more definitive proof and exact dates. Nevertheless these pages will be revised from time to time to correct any mistakes. Most other information and the history after 1876 is from Richmond College Magazines, Mission publications and private collections. The historical information came from several sources. Richmond is the 'Big Brother' of all Methodist Mission schools in Sri Lanka. Some of the siblings are no more today, whilst others have gone from strength to strength. Although all sites dedicated to Richmond have common objectives this website is not an official site of Richmond College Galle or any of its Old Boy's Unions and other umbrella groups. It is rather an attempt by several old boys, to correct a serious historical error. Great care has been taken to guard against inaccuracy or omission; but in a work in which there is so many figures and so much detail it is nearly impossible to discover each and every error. If you discover any errors please let the webmaster know. You are welcome to send your comments, bouquets and even brick-bats to the Webmaster and all mail will be answered.