<xi MONTHLY. 
Vol. XIII. 
COLOMBO, JANUARY ist, 1894. 
No. 7. 
'^PIONEERS OF THE PLANTING ENTERPRISE IN CEYLON. 
MAJOR THOMAS SKINNBR, C.M.a.,' 
THE GREAT " ROADMAKER " OF CEYLON; ALSO A PIONEER IN '■ COFFEE PLANTING." 
O write a biographical notice 
of Ceylon's great ' ' Road- 
maker " within the compass 
of a few pages, is no 
easy task. Even the auto- 
biographical volume pub- 
lishedby W. H. Allen & Co., 
"Fifty Years in Ceylon" gives bub a very in- 
adequate account of the career of an admin- 
istrative officer whose life's \vork was so 
closely identihed with the material progress of 
the Colony, and especially with the development 
of the Planting Enterprise in its Mountain Zone. 
AVe shall endeavour after very briefly noticing 
the main events of Major Skinner's life, to point 
out that portion of his work which bore more 
•.specially on the Planting Industry in Ceylon. 
The subject of our sketch was horn in St. 
John's, Newfoundland, on the 22nd May 1804, 
his father an officer in the Royal Artillery 
being then stationed there, and he seems to 
have been the only son of his mother who died 
while he was still an infant. Coming to 
England when 7 years of age, he was placed for 
six years in the charge of an easy-going 
Dorsetshire clergyman, and then, in 1818, left 
to join his father at Trincomalee, being intended 
for the Royal Navy. On the advice of naval 
officers of position, his father agreed to try 
him in the Army instead, and Governor Sir Robert 
Brownrigg early in ISlfl gazetted Mr. Thomas 
Skinner, aged between 14 and 15, to a vacancy 
a second Tiieutenant in the Ceylon Regiment. 
In this capacity, the lad in his .sclioolboy 
• We regret th.it the crgravlog of Major Ski..nor IB blurred 
tlian juHlce.— Ed. T.4-. 
jacket, had to march from Trincomalee, on his 
first military duty in charge of detachments 
of the 73rd, 83rd and Ceylon Rifle Regiments, 
across the whole breadth of the island — anything 
like a proper road being then unknown — via 
Kandy to Colombo, and that, too, while the 
country was still in an unsettled state after 
the Rebellion of, 1818. No wonder though the 
appearance of, we suppose, the youngest officer in 
the British Army, created astonishment on parade 
in Kandj', and afterwards in Colombo, as he 
marched beside six-foot Grenadiers at the head 
of his detachment in "Eton jacket"; for Colombo 
at the time was garrisoned by a "little army" 
of several regiments besides Artillery, Engineer 
Corps and even a Troop of Dragoons. Of the 
youthful Lieutenant's experiences at Colombo, 
Kandy, Maturata— (where he shot his first ele' 
phant, a splendid tusker under circumstances that 
excited the admiration of tiie Malays for their 
tuan kitchel"' "little gentleman" or officer,) — 
and Kurunegala, much might be said. But 
although Lieut. Skinner, had he continued in the 
regular service, was bound to rise to a very 
high position, especially if active -service in 
India or Europe had brought into play his strong, 
resourceful as well as determined character ; 
yet his career could not have been more useful or 
honorable than that which followed his acceptance 
from Lieut. -Governor Sir Edward Barnes, in 1S'20, 
of an appointment on the great military road wliioh 
His Excellency, had just commenced between Co" 
lombo and Kandy. Lieut, or rather Ensign Skinner, 
I ith two years' service, was still only in Iiis 
and olhcnvlse that it does bis clear, manly (.-situiTi »o imi. h \nt 
