^ MONTHLY. !X> 
TV' 
Vol, XVII.] COLOMBO, OCTOBER ist, 1897. |Ko. 4 . 
“ PIONEERS OF THE PLANTING ENTERPRISE IN CEYLON.” 
(Second Series.) 
MR. W . MARTIN L E A K R , 
ENGINEEE, PLANTEIT AND MEECHANT 1859-1S73. 
T is iiiiieh more difficult to 
deal with tlie careers of 
“pioneers” and “ public 
men” who are -still in the 
land of the living, than with 
those who have already 
passed that “ bourne whence 
no ti’riveller returns.” And 
this is especially true when the subject of our 
.notice is a personal friend, and an ex-Colonist 
so very generally liked and esteemed as is Mr. 
William Martin Leake, the well-knowm Secretary 
• of the Ceylon As.sociation in London. But apart 
from the fact that Mr. Martin Leake’s career has 
been nearly all contemporary with our ow-n — and 
open before us as that of a public man, almost from 
first to last — w-e have had the great advantage 
of securing “notes” of that portion of his life 
of which we could know nothing, written, though 
reluctantly, at our earnest request. 
We trust the use made < f this information 
in the story of the varied career of a Ceylon 
Colonist of a past generation will tend to the 
. henelit of his successors in the present day. It 
is something lo bring before young Colonists 
of the present day the career of a man of culture and 
high professional training, who, nevertheless, en- 
tered on the ordinary and sometimes rough w ork 
of the picneei — at leiist as Lngincei— w ii h the 
utmost zeal and jduck, and whose further ex- 
perience as a Merchant, Planter and Public Man 
Ceylon was uniforndy marked by transparent 
honesty, straightforward devotion to duty and 
no small degree of self-denying inteiest in the 
welfare of subordinates and young employes. 
Mr. Martin Leake’s worlc as iSecretary to the 
Planters’ Association (and for a term as Chairman 
and M.L.C.) alone entitled him to the gratitude 
of his brother Colonists, a gratitude which is 
still fuither enhanced by the continued good 
W’ork for the Colony he is discharging as the 
Secretary of the Ceylon Association in Lnndon. 
But we must not plunge into the middle of our 
subject. We cannot better begin than by giving 
the following concise “chronology” for ready 
reference in regard to the, hapiiily, still unlini.shed 
career of Mr. Leake : — 
1831. — Born in ''lontagu StresL Bryanstoue Square, 
on 23rd Apiil, St. George’s Day. [Birthday of one W. 
Shakespe ire.] 
183t). — Went to a Boarding School in Bayswater 
Village, kept by a lady. 
1837-40. — At school at a day school in Upper Baker 
Street. 
1840-45. — At the New Proprietary School, Black- 
heath. 
184.5-50. — At Rugby. 
1850-54. — At St. John’s College, Cambridge. 
1855. — Traveliing in Italy, Sicily, Austria, Germany 
and France. 
1850 58. — Apprenticed to J. M. Rendel, C.E., Pre- 
sident of the lust. C. B. On his dea- h at end of 1856, 
served out time with his executor.s — his sons Alessrs. 
M. & G. Rendel, (former of whom is now Sir A. M. 
Rendel, K.C.I.E.j and Mr. \V. G. Aimstrong of Els- 
wick (now Lord A, instrong). These years were divided 
between official worli ill Great George Street, Portland 
Breakwater (the Uve Sir J. Coode was in clnuge there.], 
Shiidwell Basin, London Docks, and the Elswiok 
Works. 
