Past Pupils’ Association of Bishop College UK

May 6, 2021 Posted by In Associations – UK

Inauguration of the Bishop’s College PPA in the UK

In 1989 during September Chavi Yogeswaran (nee de Zoysa) contacted via the phone Anusha
Ekanayake (nee Dias-Wickramasuriya) whom she had never met but heard of her via a mutual friend
Mala Weerasena (nee Siriwardene – who was a Bishopian till she was 10 years old). Anusha & Mala
both resided in Leicester. As Chavi was a resident of London it was decided that she will do the
spade work initially. Chavi’s mother Praema (nee de Fonseka, also a Bishopian) who was in London at
the time was about to go back to Sri Lanka and she was going to contact Bishop’s College Principal
Lindley Jayasuriya (nee Tennekoon) to get the College’s permission to start an association.

In Sri Lanka Praema met the Principal – who was very pleased and said for many years they wanted this to happen and that it was good news to hear that, at last, some enthusiastic past pupils were actively doing something about it. The Principal gave Praema the BCPPA constitution and other relevant material of the College for her to take on her return to UK. Now, that the official go-ahead had been given by the Principal, Chavi & Anusha decided to set a date in spring and have an initial meeting in a venue in London. All the planning and discussions were done on the phone. So, the date set was 28th of April 1990 to have a meeting. Chavi found a suitable venue in central London i.e. Fabian Society in Westminster, London SW1 which was adjacent to St James’s Park tube station. The venue was suggested by our Patron Francis Don (Buddy) – who is now the oldest member of our association. Anusha, Chavi and Nedra thought a tea would be appropriate and did the catering for the occasion. Cost of hiring of the room at Fabian society was also borne by the three.

It was an exciting and joyful day for Chavi & Anusha (as it was ONLY on that day that they both met for the first time as they are a decade a part in ages – never were together at College) and also to meet the others on the day who were: Amritha Abeywardene (nee Weeraratne), Amy Wickremaratne (nee Cassie Chitty), Anoma Suganasinghe (nee Alahakoon), Arnjali Rowe (nee Edirisingha), Barbara Karnathigoda (nee Benjamin), Chandra Tennekoon (nee Gunasena), Chinta De Silva (nee De Pinto), Dharshini Turnbull (nee Mendis), Gitanjali Jeans (nee Amarasuriya), Heather Sathiaraj (nee Kelaart), Ingrid Anthony (nee Wickremaratne), Jennifer Cader (nee Jones), Katie Willat (nee Benjamin), Mahima Rupasinghe (nee Mallawarachi), Nancy Nunn, Neloufer Jayasinghe, Praema de Zoysa (nee de Fonseka), Ranmali Wijesinghe, Rukmani Attygalle (nee Samarakody), Ruwani Gunewardene (nee Weragoda), Sandya Howarth (nee Weerasekera), Sarojini Situnayake, Selvie Pullneyagam (nee Chitty), Shevanti Sen (nee Wijemanne), Sonali de Silva (nee Wijesuriya), Sheila Fernley (nee Fonseka), and Surangani Ranasinghe (nee Samarakody) . For this meeting pp from as far as Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent & Surrey attended and spanned an age group of 20s to 70s.

At the meeting, the Association was formed with a President (Chavi), Vice President (Anusha) Secretary (Nedra) selected and the Treasurer (Dharshani) volunteered and a committee of 13 (Amy, Arnjali, Barbara, Ingrid, Katy, Jennifer, Nancy, Praema, Ruwani, Shevanti, Sheila, Selvie and Sonali) also volunteered. The attendees insisted on contributing funds towards the cost of the room and food. The left-over Sri Lankan tea edibles were sold (which was the first fund raiser for the Association)! A week later, Chinta and Praema gave generous donations of £100 each for the association. An account was opened at Abbey Building Society. In the first two years, all expenses in running the association were borne by the Exco so as to build up a healthy financial position for the future

COMMITTEE

  • Ameera Hussain nee Caffoor
  • Chavi Yogeswaran nee De Zoysa
  • Priya Peiris nee Gunawardene
  • Mignonne Cadernee Senaratne
  • Duru Thamotheram nee Satyapalan
  • Arnjali Rowe nee Edirisinghe
  • Ilham Ismail nee Ali
  • Deepani De Silva nee De Silva
  • Virginia Raffel
  • Anoma Sugunasinghe nee Alahakoon

Web:-http://bcppa.co.uk/

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