BOAKE, William John Slade. Colombo 1844 — London 2.6.1889. British (Irish) Civil Servant in Sri Lanka. Son of Rev. Dr. Barcroft Boake of Dublin (1814–1876), Principal of Colombo Academy in 1842-70, and Mary Katherine Slade (d. 1860). Obtained Lic. Med. of Trinity College, Dublin, and Diploma of Medicine and Surgery, Glasgow. In 1867 he joined the C.C.S. and served as Police Magistrate and Assistant Government Agent in several places, in the end in Mannar district. Retired in 1889. Married Rhoda Beamish (d. 1875). His report on Mannar was deemed excellent by his superiors.
Wikitree.com has also years 1844–2.6.1889, but calls him “Lieutenant of Ceylonese Light Infantry” and has death at Streatham, Surrey (which now belongs to London).
Publications: “[The Ruins of] Tirukkétísvaram, Mahátírtha, Mátóddam, or Mántoḍḍai”, JRAS-CB 10:35, 1887 (1889), 107-117, 1 pl.
– Mannar: a monograph. 86 p. 1888.
Sources: J.R. Toussaint, Annals of the Ceylon Civil Service. 1935, in Br. Biogr. Arch. 2nd series; birth & death in wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com; death also in J.H. Martyn, Notes on Jaffna. Tellippalai 1923.
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