St. John's College, started in 1915 and is the only boys' school in Nugegoda, Sri Lanka, it contains upper school. Nugegoda had no English School until 1915. St. John's School commenced with 14 pupils on 5 May 1915. In 1934, the mixed school of St. John's was separated into separate Boys and Girls schools, with the boys school known as the College of St. John, Nugeogda. In 1915, five Wardens of the Church of St. John, led by the Very Reverend John Henry Wickramanayake, secured a piece of land in Nugegoda from the Bishop of Colombo, they collected money to establish an English School with 15 students. It was a Christian Mission school and the first principal of the school was Rev. Fr. J. H. Wickramanayake. In 1934, the mixes school was separated into Boys' schools; the girls' school was known as st John's Girls' School and boys' school was known as St John's boys' college. The schools were under the church of John, Nugegoda. There was a Tamil stream as well but the classes were at the boys' school and transferred to a building adjacent to the Church.

It was called Tamil Maha Vidyalaya. In 1963 under the government re-organisation of schools, all English medium classes were transferred to st Joseph's Convent. C. E. Rubasinghe Rev. Clarence Pieris J. H. Hill Rev. Canon Harold De Mel E. C. A. Navaratnaraja W. T. Canegeratne Samarawicrama W. T. Bannaheka C. K. Gamage L. A. J. Jayasundara R. A. R. Ranathunga S. Kodikara R. S. Jayasekara S. Athulathmudali Neville Kularatne Asoka Senanayake S. Dissanayake K. Jayasekara Maj. Liyangaskubura Maj. Wanaguru Maithreepala Liyanarachchi Buddhika Aththanayake Gabriel – Yellow – Michael – Red – Rafael – Green – Uriel – Blue – The Cyril Herath Memorial trophy is awarded to the best overall student in the school. Cyril Herath served as the country's Inspector General of Police between 1985 and 1988; the Cyril Herath Memorial Trophy has only been awarded twice in the school's history, 2011 and 2015. In 2011 Udesh Chandima Perera won this award and Navodh Jayasundara won the Cyril Herath Memorial Trophy in 2015.

One of the first students, Ossie Abeyratne, became the first Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Colombo and another, Cyril Herath, the 22nd Inspector General of Police. Official website Johnian Walk and Old Boy's Talent Show

Major-General Hardy Nelson Ganong CBE, VD, ED was a Canadian sportsman and a military commander who served in both World War I and II. The son of Edward Morrison Ganong and Margaret A. Lunn, Hardy Ganong was born and educated in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, he was a cousin to the family that founded Ganong Bros. chocolate makers and after completing his schooling went to work in this business. In 1909, Hardy Ganong joined the Canadian Militia following the outbreak of World War I enlisted in the Canadian Army, he was sent overseas as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force where he served on the battlefields of France as a member of the 5th Battalion Canadian Mounted Rifles. He was wounded in the autumn of 1916 during the battles for Vimy Ridge but recovered and returned to duty. Demobilized in 1919, he returned home where, in 1920, he married schoolteacher Mildred Viola Thomas of Calais, Maine with whom he had three children. During peacetime, Ganong remained as a member of the militia, and, by the time World War II broke out, he had risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Made commander of the Carleton and York Regiment, he led the regiment as the first Canadian military unit to ship to England for battle duty. In March 1941, Ganong took command of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade and in late 1942 was promoted to major general. Sent back to Canada on the advice of Bernard Montgomery, he was appointed general officer to organize and command the 8th Canadian Infantry Division of the Home Service Divisions. Stationed for a time at Prince George, British Columbia, in October 1943 he was placed in command of the 6th Canadian Infantry Division headquartered on Vancouver Island, where he was in charge of preparations for participation in the invasion of Japan. Ganong was awarded the Efficiency Decoration for his years of voluntary military service and in 1944 was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In December 1944, with Canadian participation in the invasion of Japan cancelled and a Pacific coastal defense no longer deemed necessary, he was assigned to command the Allied troops in Newfoundland, where he remained until his retirement in 1945.

His son, Russell Edward Ganong served during the war with his father's old Carleton and York Regiment. He was killed during the Italian Campaign on March 18, 1944, he was survived by his wife, Mary Mackenzie, an infant son, Hardy MacKenzie Ganong, born September 29, 1943. Out of the army, Ganong served as honorary aide-de-camp to Governor Generals the Earl of Athlone, Vincent Massey and Georges Vanier. From 1955 to 1962 he was the full-time civil defense co-coordinator with responsibility for the organizing and training of all civil defense forces for the Province of New Brunswick. A St. Stephen town councilor for two years, Ganong was the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada candidate in the 1949 Canadian federal election for the riding of New Brunswick Southwest. Of the 12,336 ballots cast, he lost by 58 votes to A. Wesley Stuart, he ran unsuccessfully against Stuart a second time in 1953. Ganong was an active member of the executive committee of the New Brunswick Boy Scouts Association and served as the provincial movement's president.

Among his other activities, he was vice-president of the N. B. Division, Canadian Red Cross, president, N. B. Boy Scouts Association, Charlotte County Board of Trade, Board member, Connors Bros. Ltd. and president of the New Brunswick Fish and Game Protective Association. An avid curler, Ganong was president of the St. Stephen Curling Club for thirty-five years and president of the New Brunswick branch of the Royal Canadian Caledonia Curling Club, he was voted president of the New Brunswick Curling Association for 1935–1936 term, made its honorary president from 1941 to 1945. As a player, Ganong was 2nd stone on the St. Stephen team that won the 1930 Ganong Cup, a trophy donated by cousin Arthur Ganong given annually to the winner of the provincial curling championship, his team's win earned them the right to compete for the national title in the Brier Cup. As much as he was enthusiastic about the sport of curling, Ganong was as passionate about harness racing. St. Stephen had a racetrack and he wrote a column on the sport for the local Saint Croix Courier weekly newspaper.

He was a racing judge at meets throughout New Brunswick and Maine and for two seasons was a judge at Exhibition Park Raceway in Saint John, New Brunswick. Ganong and his wife died in February 1963 as a result of an auto accident during a winter snow storm on Route 1 in Charlotte County, New Brunswick while returning home from the city of Saint John, they are buried at the St. Stephen Rural Cemetery. New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame - 1930 curling champions Saint Croix Courier obituary for Hardy Ganong, February, 1963 Telegraph-Journal obituary for Hardy Ganong, February 25, 1963 Folster, David; the Chocolate Ganongs of St. Stephen, New Brunswick Goose Lane Editions ISBN 0-86492-115-2 Craigs, Melodie. Ganong, The Candy Family Literacy Council of Fredericton ISBN 0-920333-16-8 Granatstein, Jack The Generals: The Canadian Army's Senior Commanders University of Calgary Press ISBN 978-1-55238-176-2