Old Royalists remember departed classmates and former teachers

The Association of Old Royalists' 1962 Group has organized a series of religious ceremonies in memory of their departed classmates and former teachers. The inaugural ceremony, an almsgiving and Dhamma Sermon at Mallika Elders' Home, Visakha Road, Bambalapitiya will be on Friday, February 29 commencing 4 p.m.

Memorial ceremonies of other religions will be held before the national New Year in mid-April. The list of departed classmates are as follows: Devinda Chitral Kurukulasooriya, Ramesh Gupta, S. Satchithananthan, P.A. Ananda S. Pelimuhandiram (missing in Upali Lear Jet), M. S. Ramesh, Mohan Daniel, M. R. M. U. P. Gunawardena, Sarath Illapperuma, Kithsiri B. W. Amunugama, B. J. Kanahaaratchchi, Dr. A. D. Bandaranayake, Sunimal R. D. De Silva, Preethi Somasiri, J. Mahes Withana, Ranjith Wicramaratchchi (Tsunami 2004), Aiyer Jayaraman, Mano Navaratnarajah, Tyronne Bernard, Athula Edirimuni and Nalin T. Wickremaratne.

Immediate family members of those departed as well as former teachers of Royal Primary School (1956-1961) and Royal College (1962-1968) are invited to attend this ceremony.

This group of Royalists began their schooling in January 1956. Most of them were at Royal Primary School from 1956 to 1961. In 1962, there were students from schools all over the island joining this batch as entrants to Form I at Royal College.

There were further students joining this batch at Form IV in January 1965 and all sat the Ceylon GCE (Ordinary Level) Examination in December 1966. Thereafter, while there were a few drop-outs, there were many from other schools joining Form Lower VI and all of them sat GCE (A/L) in December 1968. The religious ceremony will be followed by dinner.