Founder Principal of Musaeus College – Mrs Marie Musaeus Higgins (1893 – 1926)
Marie Musaeus Higgins, after whom Musaeus College is named, is indeed a great personality of the 20th Century .The Founder Principal of Musaeus College is remembered with gratitude and affection in many Buddhist homes throughout Sri Lanka. With a rare and unflagging sense of dedication, she served the school and the cause of Buddhist education for 33 years. Herservice continued until she passed away in 1926.Mrs. Higgins was the daughter of the Chief Justice of Wismar in Macklenberg, Germany. After having graduated and obtaining the title of Frau Professor, she proceeded to the United States of America and was engaged in educational work there. She married Mr. A Higgins an Officer in the US army. With the demise of her husband she came to Ceylon to help Col. Olcott, in his educational mission towards the upliftment of Buddhist people of Sri Lanka. Marie Musaeus Higgins gave up the government post she was then holding in Washington and came to Ceylon on 15th November 1891 to be a pioneer among strange people in a strange land and to dedicate her life to the education of Buddhist Girls.
In 1893, after a fruitless search for more suitable land, Mr. Peter de Abrew allocated half an acre, out of the land that belonged to him to house the school. A mud hut was built and this was the first home of Musaeus College.
In 1896 Mr. Peter de Abrew created a Trust and appointed 5 Trustees to whom he gifted the property. The Trustees were Marie Musaeus Higgins, Col Henry Steele Olcott, Wilton Hack, Dr. William Austin and Peter de Abrew himself.
The name Musaeus College was chosen by Mr. Peter de Abrew. The extent of the land at present is about 6 acres. Of which except for about 2 acres which was bought by the Trust the rest was gifted by Mr. Peter de Abrew.
With a rare sense of dedication, Mrs. Marie Musaeus Higgins fondly known as Sudu Amma by children served the school and the cause of Buddhist education for 33 years. She passed away in 1926. Mr. Peter de Abrew continued as manager till his demise in 1941.
Dr Annie Besant was the international president of the Theosophical Society at this time.
Hence the house names: Higgins, De Abrew, Olcott and Besant.
(Courtesy of Musaeus Collge 1893 – 1968)
Founder Father of Musaeus College – Mr. Peter De Abrew (1862 –1940)
Mr. Peter De Abrew was one of the pioneer stalwarts of the Theosophical Society of Ceylon. As a young, generous philanthropist, he had got actively interested in the movement started by Colonel Henry Olcott and others towards the regeneration of the Sinhala nation, its religion and culture which had sadly deteriorated during the last decades of the 19th Century together with his father, late Mr. William de Abrew, who was himself a member of this movement donated their own land to build a truly Buddhist Girls’ School. Marie Musaeus and Mr. Peter De Abrew started their school in 1893, in a little thatched mud – walled hut where Musaeus stands now.
In 1940, this grand old gentleman of Musaeus who had sacrificed his entire life and good part of his wealth for Musaeus, passed away at the age of 78 with Musaeus foremost in his thoughts. Musaeus and all Musaeites through the ages undoubtedly owe a great deal to the school’s Founder Father Mr. Peter de Abrew as much as to its Founder Principal, Mrs. Marie Musaeus Higgins.