Person

Crown Prince Vajiravudh was born on 1 January 1881 in Bangkok, Thailand, and educated in the UK where he also attended Sandhurst Military Academy. On 15 February 1899, the prince was attached to the 1st Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, who were then based at Aldershot. He stayed with them only through the summer, and was prevented from fighting with them in the Boer War due to his status as Prince of Siam. This summer with the Durham Light Infantry had a lasting effect on Vajiravudh, with him feeling a permanent connection to the regiment, even after acceding to the throne in 1910.

In August 1915, the now King Vajiravudh donated £1000 to the Durham Light infantry’s charitable fund to aid the wives and children of fallen officers and men. This was followed a year later with another donation of the same amount, the two donations today being the equivalent of about £100,000.

Later that year, appearing in the London Gazette of 6 October 1915, King Vajiravudh was made an honorary General of the British Army by King George V. He was allowed to wear the uniform and inisignia of the Durham Light Infantry, having also been made an honorary Colonel of the Regiment. The following telegrams were exchanged:

“His Majesty the King of Siam, Bangkok.
As a testimony of my friendship and in remembrance of your association with the British Army, I desire to ask you to accept the appointment of honorary General with the permission should you so desire to wear the uniform of the Durham Light Infantry to which Regiment your majesty was formerly attached.”

“To his Majesty the King of Great Britain and Ireland.
I am deeply touched by the fresh proof of friendship which your Majesty has once more shown me in conferring upon me the Honorary Rank of General in your Army, with permission to wear the uniform of the Durham Light Infantry. I appreciate the honour you have conferred upon me in allowing me to be associated one more with your gallant Army and especially with the Regiment to which I was formerly attached. As a proof of my friendship, I desire to ask you to be pleased to accept in return the appointment of Honorary General in my Army.”

On 9 November 1915, King Vajiravudh wrote to the Lieutenant Colonel Charles Luard, commanding the 1st Battalion in India, thanking him for news of the battalion and asking for further bulletins when possible. He also talks of how proud he is to be connected to the Durham Light Infantry and that as his “present position naturally debars me from taking a more active part in the doings of the Regiment, the least I could do was to give something to the benevolent fund of your regiment, so that I could feel that I had at least done something for my old comrades of the Durhams.”

On 12 February 1916, the 2nd Battalion’s war diary notes receiving a message from King Vajiravudh offering them his best wishes for Christmas and New Year and hopes they may return home soon. The same message was sent to the 1st Battalion.

In July 1917, King Vajiravudh declared war on Germany after they began unrestricted submarine warfare earlier that year. In the September, a call for volunteers for an expeditionary force to be sent to Europe was made and the numbers for a unit were easily raised. Out of the thousands of applications from regular soldiers and civilians, the selection of a force was made in early 1918, and 1200 men were sent to France as the Siamese Expeditionary Force. Due to the timing, it was only from September 1918 that the ground troops saw action in the war and the motor transport and medical detachments provided support. The airmen, of which there were 370, including 113 pilots, needed more training to equip them for the conditions they would be operating in, and they were still training when the war ended.

The Regimental Review of 1921 says that the 1st and 2nd Battalion would be giving the King a wedding present, but it is not noted what the gift was to be. King Vajiravudh died on 26 November 1925, aged 44, and an obituary appear in the 1925 Regimental Review.

In 1991, the Durham Light Infantry Museum was asked by the King Vajiravudh Memorial Foundation in Bangkok for drawings and cloth samples of a General’s uniform from the First World War period for a museum in his honour. A copy of a photograph that the King sent to the DLI Depot in 1916 (D/DLI 2/2/384) was passed to the museum with a description of what he is thought to be wearing and some samples. The description notes that the King is wearing an “unusual mix of General Officer’s and Regimental Officer’s service dress uniform.” The museum eventually opened to the public in Bangkok in 1999.

Sources:
Correspondence of the DLI Museum
The Durham Light Infantry, A Regimental Review, 1921 and 1925, Durham County Record Office
The London Gazette https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29317/supplement/9849/data.pdf
Durham Chronicle, 3 September 1915, Durham County Record Office D/WP 2/60 (microfilm M57/57)
Letter from King Vajiravudh to Colonel Luard, Durham County Record Office D/DLI 2/1/65
2nd Battalion, Durham Light Infantry war diary, The National Archives WO 95/1617/1 http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7352356
Britannica Online http://www.britannica.com/biography/Vajiravudh
A Note on the Military Participation of Siam in the First World War, Keith Hart http://www.siamese-heritage.org/jsspdf/1981/JSS_070_0n_Hart_MilitaryParticipationOfSiamInWW1.pdf
Bangkok Post, Travel Section http://www.bangkokpost.com/travel/sightseeing/26857/king-vajiravudh-museum

Birth date: 1-Jan-1881

Death date: 26-Nov-1925

Residence: Bangkok, Thailand

Education: Sandhurst Military Academy
University of Oxford

Organisation membership: Durham Light Infantry

Military service:

1899 1st Battalion, Durham Light Infantry
1915 Honorary General of the British Army
Honorary Colonel of the Durham Light Infantry

Gender: Male

Contributed by Durham County Record Office