Uva College – Badulla started as Missionary School under the Diocesan Mission of Ceylon. The earlier Principal was Mr. T. Selviah, who was succesded by Mr. A.D. Canaga Retna. The college came under the Tutelage of Christian Fathers, such as the Reverend Father Easten, Reverend Father H.L. Budge, both Englishmen, who joined the staff of the college to teach subjects such as English, , English Literature and so on. The school became famous in Uva as a secondary school and was compared to school such as TRINITY COLLEGE – KANDY
The school had a teaching staff and at one time had on its panel the Reverend C.L. Abeuunaike, who used to coach the student in subjects such as Latin, History, and Civics and so on. After Mr. A.D. Canaga Retna, Mr. F.N. Hettiarachchy became the principal. He was then succeeded by Mr. G.A.W. De Alwis.
The college had a highly qualified staff to teach Mathematics, Science and English. Mr. Ramasubramaniam was the teacher for Mathematics. For Science, there were two Science teachers namely Mr. Moorthy and Mr. Daniel.
Messrs J.T. Paramanathan and. H.R. Lisk were teaching the English language. Mr. D.R. Gunasekara was the Art master whose talented Artistic Drawing could be seen even today at Uva College – Badulla just above the stage in the main hall. Mr. M. Samhoon was the master of Sports.
In the district of Badulla, SCOUTING was started at Uva College – Badulla and thereby the college was awarded with the Badge “1st” BADULLA “by the boy’s Scout headquarters in Colombo. Mr. Paranagama was the Scout Master. Three Scouts namely T.I.M. Maruzook, S. Mahadevan and M.S.M. Adhnan represented the 1st BADULLA- UVA COLLEGE to give a “GUARD OF HONOUR” to her Royal Majesty – Queen Elizabeth the second at the tree planting ceremony held at the Nuwara Eliya Park in 1954. The college had two Dormitories. One for the junior students and the other for the senior students. Most of the Boarders were children of the tea estates. Staff in the neighboring estates.
There were four (04) houses
The name and the colours
| Name | Colour |
| Waltham House | Blue |
| Dunnett House | Green |
| Dewinton House | Red |
| Wait House | Yellow |
Out of the above four (04) houses, Waltham House was exclusively for the Boarders who were occupying the two Dormitories and the other three houses were given to the outside students.
The college also had a Well- Equipped Laboratory for Science Students.
There was a Camera Club to teach Photography for students, in addition to above, the College had a 16mm film projector to show the English Film named “A TALE OF TWO CITIES” which was the text book for English Literature for the senior school certificate examination in the years 1952. All subjects were Taught in English while only one subject was Taught either in Sinhala or Tamil. In the field of sports, there were Cricket, Soccer, Hockey and boxing.
