Charles Henry de Soysa: Benefactor beyond compare

• Although a Christian, he contributed generously to all other religions and thought above the divisions of caste, creed and race in his unprecedented generosity

This year, March 3, is the 190th birth anniversary of the Late Charles Henry de Soysa. In all these years, his largesse to the nation remains unsurpassed, making him our greatest philanthropist.He was born and bred in Moratuwa, but his generosity to the land of his birth and heritage reached far beyond the peripheries of his home town. His greatest gift to his hometown was the building of two schools: Prince and Princess of Wales Colleges, given 150 years ago when he was just 40 years old. He wanted the youth of Moratuwa to have an education equal to those in leading schools in Colombo.

He built the De Soysa Hospital in Colombo, which has been of immense benefit to the nation and has helped millions of women through the years. It is still a living testament to his memory. He did not build the Eye Hospital but contributed towards it at the request of his son-in-law, Dr W. H. de Silva, my grandfather. He built four other hospitals outside Colombo, including Lunawa, Marawila, Panadura and Ingiriya, as well as the Hanguranketha dispensary. 

He gave land to the landless in Hanguranketha and sent carts with food and other necessities to the underprivileged all over the country. He gifted land in Colombo to the the British Government for a model farm. The Royal Colombo Golf Club is on this land, as is Model Farm Road. The statue of him which stands tall at De Soysa Circus was built by a grateful public and not by any government.

He was the founder President of the Ceylon Agricultural Association and has been dubbed as the ‘Rothschild of Ceylon’. C. H. de Soysa Exports was the first company started by a Ceylon national. He was a pioneering tea planter. 

The first buildings for the Ceylon Medical College were gifted by him and declared open by then British Governor in 1879. He was the first Ceylonese member of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and the first Ceylonese banker. Although a Christian, he contributed generously to all other religions and thought above the divisions of caste, creed and race in his unprecedented generosity.

The fact that his generosity to the nation was mainly in the fields of education and health makes him a visionary far ahead of his time. 

He more than trebled the wealth he inherited and became our first billionaire. The legend of the banquet he hosted for then Prince of Wales, son of Queen Victoria, is often talked about even now. He built Alfred House for the banquet, getting special gold crockery and cutlery created for the event, and was one of the first students of S.Thomas’ when it began in Mutwal. 

My father, when he was interning at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, was surprised to see a plaque with his grandfather’s name on it as a benefactor to this hospital. He also contributed generously to Guy’s Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital and other hospitals in the UK, so it seems that his generosity reached beyond our shores too.

Every year on March 3, we, his descendants, gather together with the principals and students of Prince and Princess of Wales Colleges and representatives of the hospitals he built, to pay homage to his memory.  As his great-granddaughter, I never fail to be amazed when I hear the speeches of the students who continue to revere his memory with gratitude and respect.

“Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Here was a man, When comes such another?