Trinity In Melbourne
Compiled from the TCK Family Foundation archives
by Harendra Alwis
Dr Percy De Zilwa and Mr. Hilary Abeyaratne at the
Annual reunion of the TCK OBA Melbourne February 2009
Trinity teaches those fortunate enough to pass through its corridors their most profound life lessons and opens their minds to the richness and wonder of the world that they are groomed to inherit and care for. Yet she fails miserably at teaching them how to leave.
Trinity still holds some of the fondest of all our memories. The stories, laughter, waywardness and mayhem of each of our stories are too voluminous to detail. The lessons learnt in those early days begin to make sense only with the maturing years of life. School made us who we are, but we had to leave the shores of home and head out into the wide world, in order to discover that. Melbourne is home to perhaps the widest spectrum of Trinitians, in terms of age as well as profession, but together we celebrate our common heritage and share our interwoven days in this our adopted home in the land Down Under.
The oldest among us Dr Percy De Zilwa’s schoolboy days ended in 1935, but he like the rest of us who have followed in the years and decades that has followed, has not yet left Trinity. ‘Dr. Percy’ as he is fondly known among us, turned up at our last reunion smartly dressed in his college tie and blazer having turned 92 years ‘young’ two days before. Seated next to him was a man whose life will always be a legend at Trinity – Mr. Hilary Abeyaratne. The youngest Trinitians among us are no more than a few months out of school – their white school uniforms almost still fresh after their last wash. ‘Trinity’ has not yet begun its slide into a quixotic memory in their minds.
There are those among us who are professionals and leaders in business and industry, mixed with an increasing number of young undergraduates toiling through assignments, part-time work and struggling to manage the chores and responsibilities of independence for the first time in their lives. Some of those who played in the inter-batch six-a-side Cricket tournament a few weeks ago were grandfathers while most of their opponents were still nervously laying the foundations of their careers and young families. What binds us to our heritage and friendships formed at Trinity, not only bring us together but also supports and sustains us in a land many oceans away from home.
Dr Percy recalls the inception of the Trinity College Old Boys Association in Melbourne. It was in the seventies that we began our reunions. Norman Walter arrived in Melbourne for an acting appointment at Melbourne Grammar. We threw a party for him on 8th August 1975 at the Cheltenham Hall. He concluded his speech thus: “I hope that my visit here tonight will be the catalyst… to bring you together more often in this manner to enjoy yourselves, to honour the school, to maintain the Trinity spirit and traditions and to consolidate the Trinity Family.” Hilary Abeyaratne had just arrived [in 1974] from TCK to teach at Mt Eliza. He decreed “The next meeting will be at our place.” The second Friday in the second month – (prize day at TCK and reunion of old boys) was suggested.
Mr. and Mrs. Norman Walter
in Melbourne
So in 1976, on the 2nd Friday in the 2nd month we went “down the hills to Hilary’s” for our first reunion – we did so again in 1977. From 1978 – 1985 we went to Stoke House St Kilda… the proceedings became more formal. In 1986 and again [in 1987] we were invited to Wesley College by Kind invitation of the Principal Mr. David Prest with whose active cooperation and acceptance and Mr. John Hood’s coordination the Trinity-Wesley student exchange scheme was established.
In the late seventies, there emerged a growing consensus among old boys in Melbourne that something more substantial should be done apart from collecting funds for Trinity, reunions, Family barbecues and cricket matches. The TCK Family Foundation was born out of Norman Walter’s words of August 1975 “to consolidate the Trinity Family”. It was the brainchild of the ever dynamic Harry Geddes who wrote a memorandum on how it could be done. His concept was “to perpetuate the excellence of the school so that she may continue to make her invaluable contribution to the island and revitalize the oneness of the whole Trinity Family here [in Melbourne] in Sri Lanka and the world over.
The TCK Family Foundation was launched in 1978 with the approval of the Board of Governors and the blessing of the Principal of the school. The foundation is run by a board of management which includes a social committee to convene the members. It has endowed dozens of scholarships providing free tuition at Trinity for five years for deserving students.
In the eighties, with the active participation of Wesley College in Melbourne, the Family Foundation initiated a student exchange scheme. It had much promise, not only of providing students of both schools a meaningful cross-cultural experience but also strengthening relationships between Australia and Sri Lanka. Unfortunately the scheme became a victim of the unstable political climate in Sri Lanka in the late eighties – particularly with the worsening of the armed civil uprising of the JVP.
Dinner Dance 2009, TCK OBA Melbourne
Finalists of the TCK OBA Melbourne inter batch six-a-side Cricket tournament, November 2009
Melbourne however is still frequented by Trinitians from all walks of life, apart from those who migrate for work or studies. The news of the arrival of a classmate, teacher, teammate or friends from Trinity has always been a perfect excuse for us to get together for a party in Melbourne. The company of those including Principals, teachers and friends on a brief afternoon is long treasured in our memories. And as Kumar Sangakkara who spent a memorable evening with us in February last year pointed out, “we are the face of Trinity to the world because the world gets to know Trinity through us. And even as we take Trinity with us, we also leave part of us at Trinity in the legacy we leave behind… the school we handed on.”
Yet even as we still gather at the reunion and play (and win) our cricket encounter with the old boys of St Anthony’s or celebrate Christmas at the Service of Lessons and Carols, the world we live in grows smaller with each passing year. The Trinity family in Melbourne grows wider and stronger as does our bond with Trinity linked by wonderful memories and a magical experience. Even though most of our classmates, teammates and teachers are scattered across the many time zones, our memories and friendships transcend the bounds of distance and time.
Beneficiaries of the student exchange program between Trinity College Kandy and Wesley College Melbourne.
Here in Melbourne, generations of Trinitians from many walks of life are silently taking Trinity to the world. No matter where we gather, to celebrate all that Trinity has given us and what she has made of us, we remember our friends and teachers on other shores with fondness and gratitude. Their memories lie in our hearts, much like those of the majestic chapel which floats on granite pillars on top of a silent hill, with its neat lawn and calm pond lying beside it.
We have travelled far and have much to go. Perhaps our journeys actually started much earlier, on a quite walk around the misty Kandy Lake or in a moment whose memory is still nestled in the silence of the Kandyan hills. Even as the boundless ocean separates us from Trinity today, she lives and grows in us. We still honour yet the school we knew –indeed the best school of all.
Duncan White in Melbourne