St.John's College Nugegoda, started in 1915. St. John's College is the only boys' school in Nugegoda city. It contains two primary sections and upper school. Nugegoda had no English School 'till the year 1915. St. John's School was started with 14 pupils on May 5, 1915. In 1934, the mixed school of St. John's was separated and a Boys' and a Girls' school was established, henceforth to be known as the College of St. John, Nugeogda.
The beginnings of St. John's are shrouded by the mists of the distant past. Way back in 1915, an English School was in fact begun in Nugegoda with 15 students.
Five pioneering men led by the Vicar of the Church of St.John the Very Reverend John Henry Wickramanayake had secured a piece of land from the Bishop of Colombo and collected money to set up the School. Rev. Wickramanayke has could thus be called the founding father of St.John's.
The other frontiersmen in this endeavour of singular merit were Mudaliyar Abeyratne Proctor Salgado C. E. Ekanayake T. D. S. A. Dissanayake, H. W. Peiris and R. S. Goonetilleke all Wardens of the Church referred to.
It is a part of history of the School that a few of the first students achieved distinction in public life in later years. One of them, Dr. Ossie Abeyratne became the first Dean of the Faculty of Medicine University of Colombo and another the Inspector General Police. (At a much later time St. John's produced yet another IGP). We are grateful for the splendid start given by these first students.
But as far as the products of St. John's go this is only the tip of the iceberg, considering the stunning and prolific array of gifted men that St. John's produced regularly over the rest of her 99 year history.
The golden age of St. John's blissfully coincided with the attainment of Independence from British Colonial rule. Norms, Standards, traditions had within a matter of two decades taken root at St. John's.
The stewardship of able Principals like Rev. Harold de Mel, Father Wickremasinghe,E.C.A. Navaratnaraja together with other stalwart teachers like R. S. Jayatilake and V. S. Jesudhasan the much feared Prefect of games gave St. John's an aura of a distinctive and disciplined School. Its fame and image were firmly on an ascendant curve as we entered the fifth decade of the last century.
It is important to stress another factor which contributed to the success of the Institution. This relates to the competitive nature of School life. Merit and success whether in the classroom or on the playing field were subject to instant recognition and a form of hero worshipping followed Whether this led to a superiority complex among the young is a moot point.
What however remains true is that it was the system that prevailed which paved the way for hero worship.. St. John's was making headway in education and sports especially in cricket Athletics and Boxing. We could yet recall the glorious victory that the G. R. Jackson scored over Royals A. B. Henricus in the Stubbs Sheild in the light heavy weight division Jackson won the Best Boxer's Cup and the cheers that reverberated around the grounds following the announcement by the Principal in the weekly Assembly seem to ring in our ears yet.
Similarly when an ex Johnian passed the Civil service there were cheers though more subdued and when George Candappa later an eminent jurist and Presidents Counsel secured six distinctions at the SSC exam the connected annonuncement at the School Assembly was loudly applauded.
Products of the early 1950s became bright stars in different fields in subsequent years. There were many Doctors Engineers Civil Servants Lawyers and Accountants.
Their names are far too many to be mentioned in an account of this nature.There was however the view not without some justification that St. John's especially in the distant decades was in some ways a feeder Institution to some of the bigger Schools in Colombo.
Admittedly in certain streams of Pre-university education St. John's did not have adequate facilities. It was in the circumstances inevitable that some of its the exceptionally bright students completed their education at the bigger Schools in Colombo which had such facilities.
This picture has changed to a high degree today. But students from Schools such as St. John's even now proceed to bigger Schools to complete their education for other reasons such as the greater fame of the school or the recognition conferred on students to be called alumni of schools like Royal and S. Thomas' Going back to the era of the 1950s St. John's also produced outstanding Cricketers.
Even during the subsequent two or three decades this trend continued. Intermittently St. John's played some of the big cricket playing Schools in Colombo and the outstations. Several of its Cricketers played "Sara Trophy" cricket later. Among them were Merril, Oorlof, Wilhelm, Ludowyk, Gary de Silva, Major General K. M. S. Perera who also captained the Combined Services team, Conrad Tissaarachay and Ranjit Cooray who was a classy batsman in the 1960s and who represented the SSC later in Sara Trophy cricket.
In the 1970s Anusha Samaranayaka a fine paceman was in the Sri Lanka team that toured England. In the 1980s we had players like Sharmal de Silva who also represented SSC at the "Sara" Trophy tournament. St. John's also produced quite a number outstanding athlethes including Public Schools and National Champions. Incidentally the present President of the OBA Sunimal Rupasinghe is a former Sprint Champion, both at the Nationals and Public Schools in early 1980's.
Past Principals
Mr. C.E. Rubasinghe (1934- 1935)
Rev. Clarence Pieris (1935-1937)
Mr. J.H. Hill (1937-1939)
Rev. Canon Harold De Mel (1940-1947)
Mr. E.C.A. Navaratnaraja(1948-1957)
Mr. W.T. Canegeratne (1957-1958)
Mr. Samarawicrama (1958-1967)
Mr. W.T. Bannaheka (1967-1969)
Mr. C.K. Gamage (1970-1983)
Mr. L.A.J. Jayasundara (1984-1994)
Mr. R.A.R. Ranathunga (1994-1994)
Mr. S. Kodikara (1994-1995)
Mr. R.S. Jayasekara (1995-1996)
Mr. S. Athulathmudali (1996-1998)
Mr. Neville Kularatne (1998-1999)
Mr. Asoka Senanayake (2000-2002)
Mr. S. Dissanayake (2003 - 2006)
Mr. K. Jayasekara (2007 - 2008)
Mr. Maj. Liyangaskubura (2009 -2012)
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