Dato Dennis Ganendra, son of Mr. Ponnasamy Ganendra and Datin Shalini Amarasinghe Ganendra, wife of Dato Dennis Ganendra and daughter in law of Mr. Ponnasamy Ganendra, visited Royal College on the 24th of January 2025.
Dato Dennis Ganendra along with his wife, Datin Shalini Amarasinghe Ganendra were the donors of the “Ponnasamy Ganendra Computer Lab” way back in 2001 when there was a crying need for a computer lab at Royal. At that time, they agreed to donate a complete computer lab with computers in memory of Denis Ganendra’s late father Ponnasamy. Mr. Ponnasamy Ganendra was born in 1927 and attended Royal College. He won the Mathematics Prize in school and at the age of 16 years entered University of London to read engineering. He passed with honors. Later on, he joined the British Railway after graduating. Many years later he was posted to Malaya as the head of Railways making him the only expat to be posted as head of Railway in any commonwealth country.
When the British declared independence to Malaya (now Malaysia), he settled down in Malaysia and started his own consultancy company Minconsult Sdn. Bhd. His son Dennis and wife Shalini made the donations although Dennis had his entire education in England. The annual scholarship awarded was for the neediest engineering student where an allowance of Rs. 5000 will be paid monthly for four years of the students’ university carrier. All in all, in-today’s value, there donations amount nearly Rs. 25 million.
It’s also pertinent to mention that Mrs. Shalini Amarasinghe Ganendra is the daughter of Dr. Ranjan Amarasinghe who was a former Turner Prize winner at Royal and her uncles Eric, Shirly and Clarence Amarasinghe were devoted Royalists. Eric was a Presidents Council and was a Vice President of the Royal College Union. Shirly, whose photo adorns the College Hall was a prominent member of the United Nations and is an authority on the Law of Sea even today. Clarence was the founder of Carmart Ltd. and the donor of several prizes at Royal.
The Royal College Union and the Loyalty Pledge Management Committee is much grateful of the contributions made by the Ganendra family.
(written by Mr. Lalith Cooray, Royal College Union)
Visit of the Donors of “Ponnasamy Ganendra Computer Lab” and a “Scholarship to the Most Needy Engineering Student”, to Royal College
