Dr Barcroft Boake (1814 - 9 September 1876) was an Irish born clergyman and educator, who was the longest serving principal of

Royal College Colombo Royal College, Colombo also known as; Royal Colombo, Colombo Royal College or Colombo Royal) is a boys' school located in Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Started by Joseph Marsh in 1835, it was established as the Colombo Academy by Si ...

, from 1842 to 1870. Barcroft Boake was born in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

in 1814, the only son of John Fuller Boake (1792-1865), a brick merchant, and Mary née Lodge. In 1828, at the age of 14, he entered

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

, and in 1836 received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

. He subsequently obtained granted a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

Bachelor of Divinity In Western universities, a Bachelor of Divinity or Baccalaureate in Divinity (BD, DB, or BDiv; ) is an academic degree awarded for a course taken in the study of divinity or related disciplines, such as theology or, rarely, religious studies. ...

and

Doctorate of Divinity A Doctor of Divinity (DD or DDiv; ) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity (i.e., Christian theology and ministry or other theologies. The term is more common in the English-speaking world than elsewhere. In the United Kin ...

. Boake was ordained as a deacon by the

Bishop of Cork The Bishop of Cork was a separate episcopal title which took its name after the city of Cork in Ireland. The title is now united with other bishoprics. In the Church of Ireland it is held by the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, and in the Roman ...

, Samuel Kyle, in 1838 and as a priest in 1839. In 1841 the

Church Missionary Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British Anglican mission society working with Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as ...

proposed to establish a new school in southern India and offered Boake the position of headmaster. The scheme however broke down and the Society recommended to the Secretary of State that he be offered the position of principal of the

Colombo Academy Royal College, Colombo also known as; Royal Colombo, Colombo Royal College or Colombo Royal) is a Single-sex education, boys' school located in Cinnamon Gardens, Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Started by Joseph Marsh (priest), Joseph Mar ...

, a state school operated by the government. He accepted and sailed to

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

in September 1942. In October 1842 Boake took up the role as the principal of Colombo Academy and he remained at that post until September 1870. In 1859 he helped establish the Queen's College, the first institution of higher education in Ceylon. The college was affiliated with

Calcutta University The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...

, and prepared students from the Colombo Academy for entrance examinations to English universities. In 1865 the Morgan Committee, a committee of the

Legislative Council of Ceylon The Legislative Council of Ceylon was the legislative body of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) established in 1833, along with the Executive Council of Ceylon, on the recommendations of the Colebrooke-Cameron Commission. It was the first form of represe ...

, conducted an inquiry into education, recommending that it be reorganised and that scholarships should be awarded to study at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

.Historical Overview of Education in Sri Lanka, The British Period: (1796–1948 )
As a result, in 1869, Queen's College was amalgamated with the Colombo Academy. In 1868 he set up a

hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory sleeping 4–20 people, with shared use of a lounge and usually a kitchen. Rooms can be private or shared - mixe ...

at the Colombo Academy, in San Sebastian, establishing it as one of the first

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

s in Ceylon. Boake also served as acting colonial chaplain and rector of Trinity Church, Colombo. On 23 March 1843 he married Mary Catherine Slade (1818-1860), the eldest daughter of Major General William Henry Slade (1787-1874) of the Royal Engineers and Mary née Holden, in Colombo, and they had eight children, including: William John Slade (1867-1889), the Police Magistrate Kalpitiya and Assistant Government Agent in various districts in the island; Mary Catherine; Emily and Fanny Lousia. Following Catherine's death on 17 January 1860, Boake married a second time, on 27 August 1861, to Agnes Jane Marsh (the daughter of Reverend Joseph Marsh, the first headmaster of the Colombo Academy), to whom he had a further five children, including: Alfred Hogarth; and Walter Hovenden. Boake wrote several treatises which were published by the Ceylon Times in 1853 and 1854. He also had a sermon published by the Church Mission Press, Cotta 1857 which was preached at Trinity Church, Colombo on 1 June 1851. After his retirement Boake and his family migrated to

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Australia on 26 October 1870 and served as the

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

of the Holy Trinity Church in Saint Kilda. He died in Melbourne, Victoria on 9 September 1876.

References

Further reading