Truth about the Last King’s cell in Colombo Fort

By Chryshane Mendis

This article appeared in the Sunday Times Plus on 25th August 2018

The Prison cell of the last King of Kandy, King Sri Wickrama Rajasingha in Colombo fort is a somewhat well-known monument. It is situated within the premises of the Ceylinco House building down Janadipathi Mawatha (Queen’s Street) at the turn off to Bank of Ceylon Mawatha. Although it is commonly known as the prison where the last King was kept, there appear currently two traditions to this story, a common tradition and an academic tradition which states otherwise. So is this really the prison cell in which Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe was kept? Let us explore the facts.

The popular story goes that the King was kept in a cell within the fort of Colombo before his departure, but is it the actual story? Was he imprisoned or placed under house arrest as said by some? King Sri Wickrama Rajasingha was captured on the 18^th February 1815 in Madamahanuwara and was transferred to Colombo without entering Kandy. On the 6^th of March the King and his escort entered the Colombo fort where they were received by Colonel Kerr, the commandant of the garrison. Here the King remained for nearly a year till the 24^th of January 1816 when he and his family was deported to Vellore aboard the HMS Cornwallis.

But, according to the Official Government Gazette and the writings of Dr. Henry Marshall, he was kept in a house and placed under house arrest, and not in a cell. To quote the Gazette No. 704, Wednesday, 15^th March 1815:

“On the Monday following Major Hook with the Detachment under his command escorting the late King of Kandy and his family entered the Fort…He is logged in a House in the Fort which has been suitably prepared for his reception and is stockaded round to prevent any intrusion on his privacy”

This being an official Government document cements the fact that he was placed in a house specially prepared for him as mentioned above. Further the account of Dr. Henry Marshall too is to be noted here. In his celebrated work Ceylon: a general description of the island and its inhabitants, with a historical sketch of the conquest of the colony by the English published in 1846 and reprinted by Tisara Prakasakayo in 1969, he states that 

“ the prison or house provided for him was spacious, and handsomely fitted up. He was obviously well pleased with his new adobe, and upon entering it, observed, “As I am no longer permitted to be a King, I am thankful for the kindness and attention which have been shown to me”

Adding further in his book he also gives a dialog between him and the King in Colombo, whom he was requested to visit professionally; he states that he found the king frank and affable and willing to converse on any subject. It is given that apart from Kandyan matters, the former king also asked Dr. Marshall aspects of his personal life such as the duration of his stay in the island, and his home in England. The writings of Dr. Marshall, a contemporary of this incident, further confirm beyond doubt, that the King was placed within a house in the fort and not in a prison cell.

So where did we go wrong? How did it come to be associated with the last King of Kandy, as the above clearly show that it was not! Having given facts that dispel the myth of the late king being placed in a cell, it is important to see the whereabouts of the said house. Through a brief study done by the writer, only the reference from R. L. Brohire’s Changing Face of Colombo was found indicating the location of the said house. He states it to be a Dutch dwelling house, which was later occupied by the Darley Butler firm; this is the present site of the Ceylinco House, the location of the present monument. The fact that a Dutch house existed at this site is also confirmed by the book When the going gets tough, the tough gets going: a history of Ceylinco Insurance. An investigation into the location of this site from the maps of 1733 and 1756-59 from Comprehensive Atlas of the Dutch United East India Company Vol. IV Ceylon, it is clear that the block along the Janadipathi Mawatha from Ceylinco House to the National Mutual Building (Center Point Building) was a residential area for officers of the Dutch East India Company. Thus it is clear that the present site of the Ceylinco House was the site of a Dutch house during the 1700s and would have most likely been there in 1815, which is just 19 years after the takeover of the Colombo fort by the British.

Then, what is the present monument? What was its function? When was it built? R. L. Brohier states in his Changing Face of Colombo: “The monument has no greater significance possibly than that of having been a sentry box set up at the gate-way to the adjoining garrison building erected by the British in 1875 (Echelon square buildings- now demolished)”.  Thus R. L. Brohier claims that this was a guard house of the adjoining Echelon barracks. To further test this, the writer conducted a deeper inquiry which proved what Brohier states.

Between the timeline of the Dutch house and the present Ceylinco building on this block, is another building, that of the Darley Butler building and a map of 1904/5 of Colombo from the National Archives shows a small box shaped structure just bordering the Darley Butler building to the south. A closer examination of it from a much clearer map of 1938 showed this particular structure within the boundary of the Echelon barracks, it appears to have been a guardroom as there is an entrance to the barracks just by it facing Queen’s road. This could be clearly seen from a photograph of a date around the 1920s/30s from the book Extract from Sea Ports of India and Ceylon. 

When analyzing the position of this guardroom and the present monument from the 1904/5 map, an aerial image of 1960 and a present satellite image in relation to the Darley Butler building and the Ceylinco House, it clearly shows that both the guardroom and the present monument are the same.

But then this brings us to another problem, the outlook of the present monument looks totally different to the guardroom. This brings to conclusion that as both the guardroom and the present monument fit to the same location, there appears to have been a modification or complete remodeling effected to the guardroom by 1960, as a photograph taken from the Baur’s building in 1960 (in the book The Faithful Foreigner, Thilo Hoffmann) shows the present monument with its prominent vaulted roof and ventilation duct.

Therefore the present monument was indeed a guardroom of the Echelon barracks as stated by Dr. R. L. Brohier. So as to why its appearance was changed and then being associated with being the prison cell of the last King, we may never know. Somewhere down the line for political reasons or either, this claim was brought up and acted upon officially by the authorities; as this is a protected archaeological monument at present and contains the official Department of Archaeology description as well as a granite inscription stating the same.

It is therefore clear from this article that the King was not kept in a cell and that the present monument belongs to a later period. This article aims at changing this public view, hence a humble request to all enthusiasts and tour operators - do not mislead the tourist on this site as the cell of King Sri Wickrama Rajasingha; but it still could be taken as a 'Monument' to the Last King of Sri Lanka of the location where he last stayed in the island before his departure to India.

A more descriptive research article on this by the writer with references can be found in the website www.archaeology.lk