F. L. Woodward

F. L. Woodward was born on 13 April 1871 at Saham Toney in Norfolk, England, as the third son of William Woodward, an Anglican vicar, and his wife Elizabeth Mary Ann. Woodward had an archetypal Victorian boyhood and began to study the languages Latin, Greek, French and German by the age of eight. He joined the traditional English public school Christ's Hospital (the Bluecoat School), London in 1879, Woodward accepted the principalship of Mahinda College which he nursed for the next 16 years of his life. ==Principal of Mahinda College==

F. L. Woodward was the principal of Mahinda College from 1903 to 1919. His work at Mahinda College included taking classes in English, Latin, Pali, Buddhism and Art, in addition to the administrative duties related with the head mastership of the school. With the assistance of Mudaliyar Gunaratne, Muhandiram Thomas Amarasuriya, Muhandiram Wickremasinghe and the charitable Buddhist public of Galle, Woodward relocated Mahinda College from busy Galle fort to its present site, which is more suited for a school. His involvement went much further as he was the designer and architect of its buildings, personally supervised their construction, and often worked alongside the masons. During the tenure of Woodward, the school had grown rapidly and became one of the leading colleges in the Southern Sri Lanka. Although he was a strict disciplinarian, his students greatly idolised him. While working in Sri Lanka, he edited the Buddhist, the leading Buddhist magazine of the island at the time, and went to Madras each year for the annual convention of the Theosophical Society Adyar. Woodward advised the director of education in Ceylon often during his work and was actively involved with the movement for establishing a University in Ceylon. Sinhalese language was accepted as a subject for the Cambridge local examinations due to his efforts. He decided to leave Mahinda College in 1919 due to the tropical climate, which was having a bad impact on his health. He migrated to Tasmania to live the remaining part of his life with the intention of translating the Pali Canon into English language. ==Retirement in Tasmania==

Woodward settled in Tasmania, and bought a small apple orchard and a cottage from a fellow Theosophist, situated on the Tamar River 40 km from Launceston, In 1936, after the publication of 15 volumes of a complete translation of the Digha, Majjhima, Samyutta and Anguttara Nikaya, Caroline Rhys Davids admired Woodward greatly for his untiring work for which he never expected any reward. Woodward died on 27 May 1952 at Beaconsfield Hospital, West Tamar, at the age of 81. He was buried in Carr Villa cemetery, Launceston. ==Literary works==

The following are some of the literary works of F. L. Woodward. ==See also==