The glorious past of the 145 year old ‘Colombo Club’ is now available through a book, authored by Franklyn G Amerasinghe. The launch of ‘The History of The Colombo Club’ was held on its founding ground (in 1871), at the old Club building of the Samudra ballroom.
 Author Franklyn G Amerasinghe presents a copy of the book to the Colombo Club Chairman Sega Nagendra (right) |
President’s Counsel Kanaganayagam Kanag-Isvaran who was the guest speaker on the occasion narrated the legacies of colonial clubs.
Embellished with photographs and sketches most by unidentified artists and photographers of the time, the Book is a factual account of the Club’s history through the decades, augmented by additional information about the history of clubs in Ceylon. The idea of a club was mooted by the first Governor of the Colony, Frederick North, who addressed Colonial Secretary Lord Hobart in 1804 on ‘social aspects’ that need to be focused on. However, it was Sir Hercules Robinson who was the actual initiator of the Club and responsible for the land being made available for the Club. He was elected its founding President.
Amerasinghe detailed that in conducting research for this book, there were many sources he banked on in putting the pages together. He appreciated the instructive article written by Prof K D Paranavitane which helped some of his archival research, as did the efforts of Dr Rajpal de Silva, who gave Amerasinghe full access to his library and permitted the use of a valuable book, ‘19th Century Engravings; Newspaper Readings of Ceylon’, a much quoted text. Amerasinghe’s research also extended to using information from ‘Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon’ by Arnold Wright who regarded The Colombo Club as ‘the premier club in Ceylon’ and material from the book on the Supreme Court by Dr Ranjit Amerasinghe and H A J Hulugalle’s book on the British Governors of Ceylon.