Galle Fort: Demography, 2018

The Population of Galle Fort in 2018

Muslims 561

Sinhalas 432

Tamils 14

Malays 02

Burghers 02

Foreigners 60 …… Total 1071

Buildings – Distrn

Samagam = 12

Sinhala = 183

Muslim = 182

Tamils = 08

Malays = 01

Burgher = 01

Foreign = 51

Abandoned 19

TOTAL ………………………… 457

INFORMATION supplied by Shiranga Jayasekera of the Galle Heritage Foundation

NOTES by Michael Roberts, 5 August 2020

I was informed that one of the Burgher house-owners is Stephen Labrooy (note his renovation of house in Middle Street featured some years back in Thuppahi). David-Colin-Thome has supplied the second link: “Apart from Stephen LaBrooy, my cousin Keith Colin-Thome and his wife Sharlini own the villa at #39 Lighthouse Street. As Keith’s uncle (my grandfather) William Colin-Thome’s tombstone is at the Dutch church, I would presume that they must be the only current owner with such an ancestral connection.”

Now, some 80 odd years on from the 1930s the situation is a far cry from a world where the Burghers of Galle, were, so to speak, ‘cocks of the walk’ (and included a few named Koch). See the group photograph of the Burgher Tennis Club from that era –one supplied by Moira Colin-Thome – a document as rare as vital.

Lyn Ludowyk is 4th from Left standing in this image from within Galle Fort

Among those featured therein is EFC ‘Lyn’ Ludowyk, Professor of English at University College and thereafter at Peradeniya University – a multi-talented man who produced plays as well as writing up Sri Lankan history. One of his lighter story-telling historical forays is the booklet Those LongAfternoons (Colombo. Lake House bookshop, 1989) which is all about Galle and should sit alongside Norah Roberts, Galle As Quiet as Asleep.