Kingswood College

Kingswood College is a public school which offers primary and secondary education for boys in Sri Lanka. The school was founded by L. E. Blaze on 4 May 1891, with 11 students at a site on Pavilion Street in Kandy. Later, the school was moved to a site on Peradeniya Road. Since then, the school has grown considerably, having over 3,500 students and 200 faculty members. It is one of the oldest schools in Kandy, and is commonly known as KCK. R D M P Weerathunga is the current headmaster.HistoryKingswood 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 stateaided 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. Under 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.