Since 1922, St. Peter's College, Colombo has provided primary and high school education to thousands of students. After passing through the hallowed hallways of this great school, some have taken the bold step to seek greener pastures in other countries. This exodus started in the fifties when many went to the U.K. for studies and then decided to stay on as permanent residents. After the infamous "Sinhala Only" bill introduced by SWRD Bandaranaike's SLFP government, many Peterites left the shores of Ceylon and migrated to Australia. Later, others immigrated to Canada, USA and New Zealand. Many live semi-permanently in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as well. St. Peter's College has gone from strength to strength over the years. The school proudly count many eminent alumni who have excelled in their respective professions, serving the country and overseas proudly.
This post will focus only on the Peterites who made Canada, their adopted home. The author of this article declares that he may not have captured the information 100%, but is confident he has covered at least 90%.
Canada is home to about 200-300 Peterites today. While most live in the Greater Toronto Area, others are scattered around Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, and a few other Canadian cities. Some represented Sri Lanka and have earned national honours. They were household names in and out of school.
Representing your country in sports is a dream for many. In this regard, we take pride in recognizing this core group of stars of yesteryear who represented Sri Lanka nationally and in one case – Canada in Sports and Entertainment. Names of Ranjit Wijeyesekere (Ahtletics), Nihal Fonseka (Tenor), Jeyer Rodriguez (Rugby), Hazmee Hameed (Rugby) and Mario Motha (Basketball) stand out. Of particular note is the performance of former Peterite cricketer Srimantha Wijeyeratne, a resident of Mississauga, who was picked to represent Canada in Cricket in 2015, and thereby gained national honours. As at writing this post, Srimantha is still a member of the Canadian Cricket Team. We wish him well.
Many other Peterites in Canada have excelled in their chosen professions and/or fields of business or entrepreneurship in Canada.
Message to Peterites in Canada – Be cognizant of the fact that you belong to a select group of Sri Lankans who were privileged to receive their education at St. Peter's College in Colombo. In matters of your Alma Mater, we request you to act with dignity and uphold the strong values you grew up with in the class rooms of our great school. Refrain from any acts (verbal or written) that may deface, disgrace or dishonour your alma mater and your fellow-Peterites who live amongst you. We are the face of St. Peter's College in Canada and it is imperative to live up to it. Respect for the individual is very important.
Always, keep the Peterite flag flying! Thank you.
PETERITE HONOURS
RECIPIENTS OF PETERITE HONOURS FROM CANADA
Year HONOREE CATEGORY 1984
NONE FROM CANADA
Inaugural Year
1988
JEYER RODRIGUEZ
Rugby – Sri Lanka Player
1997
RANJIT WIJEYESEKERE
Athletics – National Champion
1997
NIHAL FONSEKA
Music – Famous Tenor
1997
MARIO MOTHA Basketball – Sri Lanka Player 2002
MAXWELL RANASINGHE
Entrepreneurship
2002
HAZMEE HAMEED
Rugby – Sri Lanka Player
2006
DARREL PERERA (DEC)
Trade & Commerce
2006
DYLAN MODDER
Entrepreneurship
2016
SRIMANTHA WIJEYERATNE
Canadian cricketer
2016
UPALI OBEYESEKERE
Trade & Commerce
HEAD PREFECTS Clarence Mendis – 1958 Stephen Alagaratnam Mario Motha – 1989 Tissa Perera
SENIOR PREFECTS Ricardo Joseph Nelum Attanayake (1988-1990) Roshan Hennennayake PREFECTS Bertrand Mendis Marius Fernando James Alagaratnam
BASKETBALL Daya Chandraratne (Capt.) Ranjit Wijeyesekere Stephen Alagaratnam (Capt.) Mario Motha (Capt. & Colours) James Alagaratnam (Colours) Sunanda Jayasekara (Colours) FIELD HOCKEY Crofton Joseph (Colours) Nelum Attanayake (Colours) 1988
TENNIS (PUBLIC SCHOOLS) Neville de Silva (Decd) Lalith Wiratunga (Decd) Upali Obeyesekere
TABLE TENNIS Bertrand Mendis (Colours) Stephen Alagaratnam (Capt)
CRICKET Neville de Silva (Dec) Roy Dissanayake (Decd) Mark Pereira (Dec) Christie Marthalingam David Muthumani (Dec) Dane Joseph Rumesh Sebastiaan Crofton Joseph Sunanda Jayasekara Srimantha Wijeratne Ricardo Joseph
CADETING Nelum Attanayake Best Cadet; Cadet Sergeant & Regimental Sergeant Major (Acting-1990)
Upali Obeyesekere Cadet Camp – Diyatalawa
ATHLETICS
In the fifties, St. Peter's College were blessed with a superb Athletics team that won the Colombo South Group Meet and Tarbat as well (subject to correction).
Ranjit Wijeyesekere leads the pack among Peterite athletes domiciled in Canada. Ranjit won national honours in the 440 & 220 yards representing Ace Athletic Club. He blazed through the Peterite track in the 220 yards, and his pet event – the 440 yards. Ranjit was the crowd favourite that time and went on to represent Ace Athletic Club, Air Ceylon and KLM after leaving school. He had the honour of been the first Ceylonese to clock under 50 seconds in the quarter mile. Ranjith immigrated to Canada in the sixties and worked for the Federal Government before retiring a few years back. Ranjit alternates his time between hunting in the summer at his farm and his home in Brampton.
Hazmee Hameed is a public Schools athlete who did well in the sprints in the sixties. His extraordinary speed helped him as a wing-three-quarter in rugby which he excelled.
Errol de Silva is another Peterite who did well in the Colombo South Meet and the Public Schools Championships. He threw the javelin and discuss. Errol worked for a Canadian Bank and lives in Scarboroug in retirement.
Nihal Fonseka excelled in the Pole Vault event. Besides his reputation as perhaps the best tenor produced by Mother Lanka, Nihal was a good athlete and boxer in school. Nihal worked for Canada Post for many decades and is now retired and lives in Mississauga.
Bhanu Wijeyesekere is another athlete of repute at college who also represented the CT & FC on leaving school. Bhanu lives in Markham and is married to All-Ceylon Netball player and Athlete Pauline Clogstun.
Larry Landersz was also a noteworthy athlete excelling in the sprints.
RUGBY
Canada has many Peterites who donned the Blue, White and Gold jerseys since college started rugby in 1932. Four of them had the rare honour of captaining the college rugby team – Jeyer Rodriguez (1962), Stephen Alagaratnam (1963), Hazmee Hameed (1966) and Viraj Fernando (1984). Many others played rugby for college 1st XV in the years gone by. It is important to capture this information for posterity. The list is not complete but compiled out of personal knowledge. Highlighted in 'RED' are those who captained St. Peter's College in Rugby. We know that James Alagaratnam, Hazmee Hameed and Dr. R. Paramsothy are coloursmen in rugby. We will be updating this information once we get confirmation from the others.
Ranjit Wijeyesekere Jeyer Rodriguez Stephen Alagaratnam Siva Narendran (Decd) Durand Beekmeyer Hazmee Hameed Larry Landersz Mervyn Mendis Dr. R. Paramsothy Chris Serpanchy Crofton Joseph Viraj Fernando James Alagaratnam Tissa Perera C.L. (Lalith) de Silva Sunanda Jayasekara The 'Honour Roll' of Peterites in Canada will be updated regularly on an ongoing basis. Our thanks to Bertrand Mendis, Tissa Perera, Nelum Attanayake, Ricardo Joseph and James Alagaratnam for their input in compiling this list. This is history that we are recording for posterity.
- Initial posting on August 9, 2017
- 1st Update – 9/22/2017
- 2nd Update – 9/30/2017
- 3rd Update – 4/30/2020
Compiled by Upali Obeyesekere – Founding President, JPAA Canada.
