Deshamanya C.A. Coorey Memorial Fund For Royal College

COLOMBO: The Royal College Union (RCU) Trust the beneficiary of an endowment of Rs. 1 million in memory of two old boys, Deshamanya Chandana Aelian Coorey and his son, Mohan Srinath, will award two prizes and a scholarship annually. The endowment will be known as the Deshamanaya C.A. Coorey Memorial Fund.

The RCU Trust has allocated the annual interest of Rs. 500,000.00 as the Deshamanya C.A. Coorey Memorial prize to the Royalist who secures the highest aggregate in both physics and chemistry at the GCE (Advanced Level) Examination and interest of Rs. 250,000.00 as the Mohan Srinath Coorey Memorial Prize for Information Technology at the G.C.E. (ordinary level) examination.

The intrest of the balance Rs. 250,000.00 is an annual hosteller's scholarship to a deserving hosteller identified by the Hostel warden and approved by the school principal.

Deshamanaya Coorey had a brilliant academic career in school between 1930 and 1937 and later at the Colombo University. He took the form prize every year and eventually carried the Turnour Prize for the best student.

Among his other scholastic accolades were the De Soysa Science Prize, The Governors' Prize, The George Labrooy Prize for Natural Science and the University Entrance Scholarship in 1938.

At the University, he was awarded a B.Sc. (Special Chemistry) of the London University with first class honours and the Bhikerji Framji Gold Medal in Chemistry.

In 1945, he joined the Ceylon Civil Service and retired as the Secretary to the Treasury and ended his professional career in the banking sector, serving in the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank, being the first Chairman of the National Development Bank from 1979 to 1989 and then being appointed as Chairman of the DFCC where he ended his career. He passed away in March 2004.

His son, Mohan Srinath, attended Harvard University in the US after schooling at Royal College where he obtained a degree majoring in economics following up with a MS in Accounting and CPA from New York University.

He, too, joined the international banking sector and served in the middle East with the Gulf International Bank. He pre-deceased his father in 1996.

The endowment has been made by Mrs. Lakshmi Coorey in memory of her late husband.