Thursday, February 12, 2015

Hartley College and Methodist Girls' High School, Point Pedro, Sri Lanka, more than 150 years after founding.

Entrance to the Methodist Girls' High School.

Entrance to Hartley College, Point-Pedro.
1.    Hartley celebrated 100 years of its founding in 1952 when I was a student there. It was claimed by our teachers that it was founded by the Rev. Peter Percival 125 years earlier, even though we celebrated 100 years of its founding.

2.    Prof. Eliezer, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Ceylon and Mr. K.B. Ratnayake from Anuradhapura, later a cabinet minister studied there. Mr. J. N. Arumugam another Alumnus became a member of the Ceylon Civil Service. Mr. Navaratnam who became a Superintendent of Police in the late 1960s and Mr. Anandaraja who became Inspector General of Police studied at Hartley. Dr. Jeganathan my batch mate at Hartley became the Director General of Health Services and I was Senior Surgeon at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka in the late 1990s. Mr. Chinniah a batch mate in the HSC joined the ‘Dufferin’ in India to train in the Merchant marine. He rose up in his field and became the harbour-master in Colombo and later took part in the education of youngsters in the Merchant Marine. There was Kirupaharan from Thunnalai my hostel mate at Hartley who immigrated to Germany. He became a Director of a large container firm in Bremen. He donated a school bus to Hartley and gave funds to rebuild the Hartley Hostel. There were numerous others in varied fields which I lose count of.
Philip G Veerasingam

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Scenes at a wedding reception, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

The wedding cake.
Salad
Main item of rice/noodles.
Dessert.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

A wedding reception in Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

Welcoming lights.

Kandyan dancers escorting the newly-wed couple to the reception hall.
Fireworks display

Monday, February 9, 2015

Landmarks in the Faculty of Medicine, Colomboi, Sri Lanka.

The 'Anatomy Block', Faculty of Medicine, Colombo.
 The place where a Medical Student started his 'learning the art of Medicine' by doing dissections on the preserved cadavers.

'Koch's memorial Clock tower', Facuty of Medicine, Colombo.
'Koch' was the second Principal of the Colombo Medical School in the late 1980s. He died of 'Blood Poisoning' following an injury sustained during an operation on a patient. A grateful public contributed towards the erection of this clock tower.

http://comsaa.blogspot.com/2013/09/some-milestones-in-history-of-colombo_3903.html




Dr.Edwin Lawson Koch- The second Principal.
The  founder of the family in Ceylon was his great
grandfather, Godfried Koch of Brandenberg, who came to the East
in 1755.
Edwin was born on 29 November 1838, the son of
Johann Godfried Koch (Lawyer)and Angenita Dorothea Aldons, at
Jaffna, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). 
He had his early education at Jaffna, and must have spent
many a dreamy afternoon among the beautiful, sturdy ramparts
of the old Dutch Fort where his grandfather had served as a 
Lieutenant (Artillery)  Johann Godfried Koch in the VOC .
At the age of twenty he won a government scholarship which
enabled him to enter the Medical College at Calcutta. There he
further distinguished himself. Besides other prizes he won in 1862
a Gold Medal and the prize for General Proficiency.
At Calcutta he met and afterwards married Miss Emma Millar.
He began his professional career in Ceylon as a Government doctor
on the 25th July 1862.
‘As a writer he was of the highest order’.
‘He published information about the Medical history of Ceylon’.
Dr. Koch was one of the three lecturers - Drs. Andree
and Vanderstraaten being the other two.  
In 1875 he succeeded Dr. Loos as the Principal of the Medical
School which post he held till his tragic and untimely death two
years later. 
The late Dr. J. L. Vanderstraaten, also famous in his time, described him as "a bold surgeon, a successful physician and an expert obstetrician." 
The year 1877 will always be remembered as the saddest in the
history of the Ceylon Medical College.  
On November 9th, of that year Dr. J. C. Evarts, demonstrator in
Anatomy, and a brilliant and promising young doctor, received a
wound while assisting Dr. Koch, Surgeon of the General Hospital.  
In spite of Dr. Koch's skillful medical attention, the young
doctor died on November 17th from the effects of blood poisoning.
Within  less than a month of the death of Dr.Evarts,  Dr. Koch
himself was
similarly infected from the result of a slight scratch sustained in the
course of a post mortem
All the best doctors in the island hurried to his bedside, including
Dr. Pieter, Daniel Anthonisz of Galle, and the Head of the Medical
Department, Dr. Kynsey. But even their combined efforts were of
no avail.
He died within a week of getting the injury  on December 20th,
1877 when he was only 39 years old, two years after his
appointment as Principal 
" His short life was full of good deeds,…, he served the poor with
Special generosity and devotion, and was widely known and love
as their benefactor and friend’.
The grateful fishermen of Mutwal paid a striking tribute to his
memory at his funeral, by spreading white cloth all along the route
from his home to the cemetery gate
His son, Dr. Vincent Koch, was given a medical education in Great
Britain with subscriptions offered by a grateful public.
The following stanzas are from a poem written in his honor on behalf of the Freemasons of India:
Wail, Lanka's sons. We grieve to-day,  For him whom Death has snatched away ;
Whose skill oft bade the tyrant stay , Successfully.
Yet not for him we grieve, for all
Before that awful scythe must fall
The loss is ours ; who heard the call resignedly,
We mourn the heart that soothed our grief;
The kindly hand that brought relief;
The voice, whose music, all too brief, fell soothingly.
We mourn the MAN, whose honest brow,
Still looking skyward, taught us how
To live, to work, to trust, to bow—The end to see.
We miss the skillful master-mind}Who taught us how to serve our kind;
Feet to the lame, eyes to the blind,
Continually.
Peace to his ashes ! There lies one
Whose useful life, though scarce begun,
Has soared that highest need, " Well done !

More blest than we.
‘Through Dr. J. L. Vanderstraaten's efforts… a clock tower was
erected to his memory in the grounds of the Medical College by
public subscription amounting to Rs 3,000, and Sir James Longden,
the Governor at the time, induced the Legislative Council to donate
the handsome clock at a cost of Rs 5,000.’. 
‘As a centenary effort … a suitably inscribed marble tablet in order
to make the monument better known to the present generation to
whom his high ideals and noble life should serve as a good
example’.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Emptying and cleaning a domestic well, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

The equipment used arrives on a wheel-barrow.
The emptied well inside wall  being scrubbed
Ascending out of the well.
Equipment leaving the site.
Click on the web-link below with your speakers on :-