Frederick Dornhorst, K.C. Eloquent Saviour of Royal College

“All Royalists of the present generation should specially remember two great Royalists, whose defense of the College in its darkest days saved Royal. They are Sir Richard Morgan (1851) and Frederick Dornhorst, K.C. (1916)”

S.S. Perera ‘History of Royal College’

by Senaka Weeraratne

Named after one of the schools’ greatest sons for his remarkable oratory and highly persuasive speech delivered at a Royal College Prize Giving (1916), that led to the abandonment of a proposal to replace Royal College in favour of a University College, the Dornhorst Memorial Prize has shone as the most coveted Prize awarded to the most outstanding student during the year at the Annual Royal College Prize Giving held under the patronage of the Chief Administrator of the Country (Governor or Chief Secretary in the absence of the Governor) during the colonial era or the head of the State in the post – independence period.

Frederick Schultz Dornhorst, KC, enjoys an iconic status in school history and is widely regarded as the ‘Great Spokesman of Royal College’ like Sir Richard Morgan before him, for the championship of his Alma Mater, when there were moves at the highest level of Government to abolish the institution and replace it with a university. His memorable speech at the school Prize Giving on August 10, 1916 moved the Chief Guest, the then newly appointed Governor, Sir John Anderson, to assure the gathering that he was not unsympathetic to the views expressed both by Dornhorst and Charles Hartley (Principal), in favour of the continuation of Royal College as in the past, and added that it was not fair for Royal College to be reduced to the size of a finishing school for only a few boys.

The eloquent speech of Dornhorst had ripple effect in the corridors of power leading to Royal College being spared from abolition. Instead it was shifted from its then premises at Thurstan Road to Reid Avenue (previously called Serpentine Road) in 1923 and consequently the newly established Ceylon University College took over the buildings left behind at Thurstan Road.

Dornhorst Memorial Prize

The Dornhorst Memorial Prize for the most outstanding student was commenced in 1930 and has always been considered as the pride of Royal College prizes and the equivalent of the prestigious Victoria Gold Medal of St.Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia, Ryde Gold Medal of Trinity College, Kandy and Fritz Kunz Memorial Trophy for the most Outstanding Anandian.

In his last Will, Dornhorst, who died in 1926, made provision for an endowment of a prize. It is this endowment which provides the funds for the Dornhorst Memorial Prize.

The important criteria for selection for this high honour are the display of outstanding qualities of leadership, discipline, respectability, a good personality, high achievement in academic studies and sports, and close personal involvement in and selfless voluntary contributions to the welfare of others in society via Clubs and Societies and other College activities. Mere popularity alone will not suffice for this Award.

In 1994, the Lalith Athulathmudali Memorial Award for the Most Outstanding Royalist was inaugurated and in turn the Dornhorst Memorial Prize was re-designed to be the Prize for the most popular student, to be awarded on the basis of winning the highest number of votes from an electoral base comprising teachers, students ,Prefects all of the Upper School, and the Principal.

This Dornhorst award should not be confused with the Turnour Prize the oldest prize in the school which had been awarded since 1846 and the Lalith Athulathmudali Memorial Prize awarded to the most outstanding Royalist of the year since 1994

Notable Prize Winners

The Dornhorst Prize winners in the pre- independence period were:

*F.C. de Saram (1930)

*B.A.Kuruppu (1931)

*A.C.Ebell(1932)

*D.C.T.Pate (1933)

*R.S.Cooke (1934)

*P.G.B. Keuneman (1935) – leader of the Communist Party, former President of the Cambridge Union(1939) and Minister of Housing and Construction( 1970 -1971)

*F.H.De Saram (1936)

*M.Sivanathan (1937)

*A.E.Keuneman (1938)

*B.Mahadeva (1939) – reputed International Civil Servant

*B.St.E.De Bruin (1940)

*Neville Kanakeratne (1941) – former Ambassador to UN

*S.G.Salgado (1942)

*C.G. Weeramantry (1943) – former Judge of the International Court of Justice

*Lakshman Wickremasinghe (1944) – former Bishop of Kurunegala

*L.C. Arulpragasam (1945)

*Upali Amerasinghe (1946)

*Nihal Silva (1947)

*Tony Anghie (1948)

Biographical sketch

Frederick Dornhorst (1849- 1926) was one of Ceylon’s brilliant lawyers who though failing to win a Prize at the Colombo Academy, was able to shine at the Bar. He was on the staff of the Colombo Academy from 1868 to 1873. He was born on April 26, 1849 in Trincomalee and passed out as a lawyer in 1874. He was called to the English Bar in 1902. He was sworn in as a King’s Counsel in Ceylon in 1903 with Ponnambalam Ramanathan  and Thomas De Sampayo the first “silks” of the Bar of Ceylon.

In his day he was known as the “lion of the Ceylon bar’. He declined several offers for high judicial appointments. Frederick Dornhorst will be remembered as having fought and defeated Thomas Norton, ‘the lion of the Madras bar’ over the Jeronis Pieris Will Case in 1903, the second being for the prosecution in the Dixon Attygalle murder case of December 1906 (when his brother-in-law John Kotelawala, father of Sir John, was involved—he was to die on April 20, 1907 by committing suicide in prison) and the third in connection with the Pedris shooting incident during the height of the Sinhala-Muslim Martial Law riots in 1915.

Family History

His grandfather, the founder of his family in Ceylon, was known as John Christian Dornhorst. He was of German origin. He is said to have come to Ceylon from Germany in 1791 and gained employment in the Dutch Service. He was afterwards employed under the English in the Naval Stores or Dockyard as a Gunner in the Artillery and died in 1828 at the age of 65 years.

Frederick Dornhorst was the youngest in a family of nine. His father, Frederik Dornhorst (1803-1854) was a Notary and had worked for a long time as the Secretary of the District Court of Trincomalee. He lost his father when he was five years old. The family fell on hard times. In 1856 when he was seven years old his mother had decided to shift residence and left Trincomalee to come to Colombo. Dornhorst had his early education at St. Thomas’ and Royal (then known as the Colombo Academy) and at the Training College. He entered the Colombo Academy in 1861, when Dr. Barcroft Boake was the Principal.

Frederick Dornhorst himself had eight children. In a remarkable document entitled “To My Children” written around 1887 -1888, Dornhorst has left a short account of his life with the primary purpose of awakening in his children a desire to live respectably and maintain their name unsullied.

He says:

“You see my children that you have reason to be proud of your descent, and although your success in life and your social position will depend upon your individual character and although I should not like, to foster in you the pride of family, still I would like you to know that I have always been taught to lay stress upon respectability. While not despising others of low parentage you must make it your endeavour to live worthy of those from whom you are descended. Be select in the friends you keep, but be more select in the marriages you contract. Don’t marry beneath your station, and if possible, don’t do your children the injustice of being ashamed of their parents. There is a growing tendency in our midst to deprive the respectable Burghers of their undoubted social position. It will depend upon you and others of your generation as to how far that tendency will be encouraged. When the time comes for you to settle down in life, choose your spouses from families having something more to boast of than wealth or only social position. I would rather that your future partners were poor and of good birth than that they were rich but of doubtful parentage. Don’t misunderstand me. The pride of birth without individual character will be an offence and a stumbling block. But only remember that good birth to one who has attained a good social position is and will always be an inestimable advantage. Don’t despise those who have worked themselves up to a high social level, because they have no mound of ancestry to stand upon. But at the same time while you mix freely with them in society you should avoid mingling your blood indiscriminately. Especially do I address my daughter now, for remember a man raises the woman, no matter who she may be, to his level, but a woman sinks down to her husband’s position, if she marries beneath her.” (Jepharis ‘Frederick Dornhorst’ Journal of the Dutch Burgher Union of Ceylon, Vol. LXV January – December 1991 Nos. 1-4, page 12)

The above paragraph provides an insight into the thinking of people of eminence of that era in the last quarter of the 19th Century, and though much of it would seem out of date today, the insistence on living a respectable life and keeping one’s reputation unsullied is valid for all time in a civilized society.

(To be continued next week)