Kingswood College
Education Management - Kandy, Central Province, Sri Lanka
Kingswood College Employees
Kingswood College Details
Kingswood College was founded by Louis Edmund Blaze, with only eleven students, as a boys' high school. At the time, most schools on the island had been classified as state‑aided government schools or missionary schools. Government grants were available until a school showed itself established, with a solid core of able teachers and an expanding roll, but institutions run by individuals did not qualify for government assistance. The first few years of the school's existence were a struggle for Blaze. Fee income barely covered the cost of running the school, so Blaze had no option but to hand the struggling institution over to be managed by the Methodist mission. In 1961, the school was taken over by the state.Louis Edmund Blaze, Founder Principal of Kingswood CollegeUnder the aegis of the mission, Blaze left an indelible stamp over the school. From the outset, he modelled the school on the English public school system. It is not without significance that a house system was introduced to the school in 1922, and the names selected were those of major English public schools; (Eton, Harrow, Winchester and Rugby). He built up the school on the strength of his own reputation. It was he who coined the term Gentlemen of Kingswood to describe the body of students of his school and he who chose a motto for the school in Latin; Fide et Virtute. He then chose the distinctive school colours—maroon and dark blue—and he wrote the words of the school song.The school was the first in Sri Lanka to introduce rugby, the first boys' school to employ a female teacher, the first to introduce the sport of rowing and one of the first to establish a Cadet Corps. The first prize giving was held in 1895, only four years after the school was founded and became an annual feature thereafter. One notable feature of the Kingswood Prize Giving was the Prologue written by Blaze, a review in verse of the year's events in the country and the world.
