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Picture research by Pattara Kharn

Editorial direction by Narisa Chakrabongse

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King Mongkut in his coronation regalia.

In 1896, the year before his father�s tour of Europe and Imperial Russia, Chakrabongse had already been settled in England in the house of a Dr Yarr near Camberley, while his brother Crown Prince Vajiravudh was staying with a Colonel Hume, who was coaching him for entry into Sandhurst.

Chakrabongse was there to pursue his studies and perfect his English. He had with him his attach�, Nok Young, and a friend of his own age, Nai Poum Sakara. Poum was not a noble or a prince, but a brilliant student and winner of the King�s Scholarship. He had been chosen to accompany Chakrabongse not only for companionship but because the astute Chulalongkorn considered that this clever hard-working boy would act as a spur and encouragement to the scholastic endeavours of his son.

Hardly had the two young boys begun to accustom themselves to life in so different an environment from that of their upbringing, when they heard from the king that at the Russian Emperor�s invitation, they were eventually to proceed to St Petersburg where they would both become members of the elite Corps des Pages, and that, more immediately, steps would be taken to provide them with a Russian teacher.

Slight, small of stature, with fine dark eyes and a rather deprecating shy expression, Prince Chakrabongse must have been greatly cheered that his father had ordained that Poum, not unlike him in appearance and about the same age, was to accompany him from one already strange environment in England to the unimaginable country of Imperial Russia. For both the boys it was a great adventure, more so for Poum, unaccustomed as he was to the ceremonial of court life and etiquette that had surrounded Chakrabongse from birth.

Both of them � after all they were only thirteen years old � must have found the prospect of adding Russian to their already heavy programme of studies, already in a foreign language, rather daunting, and therefore awaited with some apprehension the arrival of Mr Ardachef, a recently-graduated Russian philologist. Unhappily, he proved a great disappointment as he devoted every second of their lessons to a relentless grounding in Russian grammar, and ignored completely their need to acquire conversational vocabulary. In addition, he could not have been said to have a vocation for teaching, as he was both impatient and bad-tempered. Fortunately, after three months, he was replaced by a Mr Petrof, with whom they made better progress.

In May 1898, they left for Russia via Paris, where they were joined by the Siamese Minister to Russia, Phraya Suriya, Phraya Mahibal, their tutor, and his wife. Sad to say, no record remains of their long journey to St Petersburg where they were welcomed by a Court Minister, and driven to the vast Winter Palace. There a magnificent apartment, reserved for imperial guests, had been placed at their disposal and must indeed have seemed a change from Camberley!

Next day, Chakrabongse and Poum were taken to pay their respects to the Tsar at his summer residence, Peterhof, a superb eighteenth century edifice some thirty miles outside St. Petersburg, surrounded by an enormous park, where a thousand shimmering fountains played, and the wide Samson Canal linked the palace with the Baltic Sea.

Warmly greeted by their Imperial host, the newcomers, after a further fortnight in St Petersburg were not sorry to leave their rather over-impressive quarters to spend the summer in a charming villa � the Villa Krassovskova � near Peterhof. Here they learned that the Emperor intended they should both be entered in the Corps des Pages forthwith, and summer uniforms without epaulettes were immediately provided for them. For the present, however, they were to enjoy themselves in the fine sunny weather and long nights, the famous �White Nights�, when the sun does not set till eleven or twelve at night and twilight continues until two or three in the morning.

They were given bicycles on which they ran races and swooped and zig-zagged along the well-raked paths of the park. There was riding, drives in the imperial carriages and, once a week, an evening concert where the court orchestra in scarlet tunics, a livery dating from the eighteenth century, played superbly in the open air. Some listeners would saunter in attentive silence, while ladies-in-waiting, old Generals and Aides-de-Camp with gold �aiguillettes� remained seated in their carriages, their coachmen and footmen in scarlet, their collars embroidered with the imperial eagle. The two Siamese also had the company of their future companions in the Corps des Pages who, from their Summer Camp nearby, strolled over to their villa and with much chatter and laughter and many questions encouraged them to talk in their still-halting Russian. Apart from a nasty riding accident when Chakrabongse�s horse bolted, causing him to fall on his head and suffer severe concussion, time passed happily and too quickly.

Poum, Deguy, their personal tutor, another teacher and Prince Chakrabongse at the Corps de Page.

Ekaterina Ivanova Desnitsky�s father had been Chief Justice of the Lutz Tribunal in the Ukraine, where her mother Maria Milhailovna Khijniakoff�s family owned several large estates. As both her father and mother had been married and widowed previously, Katya � as she was always called by her family � had seven half-brothers and sisters, but only one full brother, Ivan, two years older than herself.

According to family diaries, her mother was a considerable beauty whose first husband, Pyotr Vladimirovitch Verdi, a talented engineer, had matched her in his handsome demeanour and, romantic temperament. The two had been deeply in love. But in 1883, five years after his early death, although courted by many, she accepted the hand of Ivan Stepanovitch Desnitsky who apparently lacked both good looks and charm but made up for them by being �serious and practical�.

In Lutz they lived harmoniously together and it was there that Ivan and Katya were born in 1886 and 1888, respectively. Although an excellent mother to her step-children and children, whom she described collectively as �yours, mine and ours�, because her husband adored her, �he would have no burdens laid on her�. He therefore engaged and instructed the servants and ordered the meals, while �Maria read novels late into the night, rose at two and took no part in the running of the household.� In fact, one afternoon, having just risen from bed, she sauntered through the courtyard and, upon seeing a women unknown to her, the following exchange took place:

�What can I do for you, my dear?�

�Please M�am, I�m your cook.�

�Really, how nice; have you been here long?�

�Well, it�s been about a month.�

Unfortunately for Maria, she was only too soon deprived of this carefree existence as, in 1888, after only five years of her second marriage, Ivan Stepanovitch died, leaving her once more a widow and this time badly off, as his death occurred before his full pension had been earned.

As Lutz now held only sad memories, Maria removed to an apartment in Kiev where she had relatives and friends, and it was in this beautiful university city with its superb cathedral and noble architecture that the little Katya, who had been only two months old when her father died, was brought up. Although circumstances were straightened, she had a happy childhood and retained a great affection for Kiev itself, for its wooded hill, shady streets and gardens overlooking the Dnieper river far below. There were also long delightful holidays when the whole band of children were taken to visit their mother�s relations on their various estates � Krasnaya Sloboda, Kaptievka, Zubuyanaye, Trotstianka and Yurov.

�In some days Katya will arrive here. I am awaiting her with impatience. My house is ready and it is very nice and cosy and also cool. My father himself gave all the orders about the furnishing and arrangements and told me this is the best house in Bangkok. I am very happy that Katya will have a home with all modern comfort and convenience. She is so pretty that I still can�t get used to it.

�I cannot tell you how lucky I am to have such a wife. She is also so happy and I hope it will remain this way forever.

�We talk about you often and I want to thank you once more for all your help especially to me, who has stolen your sister and taken her so far away. With many thanks and love.�

�One day, while I was busy with the furniture, my maid was sent to the Queen to give her roses (I have a lot of roses now). Can you imagine how surprised the Queen was when her questions as to what I was doing were answered by �She is making furniture�. She said I was brilliant � I feel very amused by the thought of how this would be received in Russia if they knew that I, with a house full of servants, had to do such things myself.�

King Chulalongkorn returned from Europe on 17th November 1907. Perhaps Chakrabongse thought his father might now come round to meeting his wife but, throughout this time, although Chulalongkorn was duly informed of the altogether favourable impression made by Katya on the Queen and other members of his family and, though he must have been struck by the less rigid ambience of the English royal court, there was no change in his attitude towards his daughter-in-law. Later it is true, he would sometimes ask after her, he would express pleasure in hearing she admired the lay-out of Bangkok, for which he was responsible, and remark that he was interested that she shared his hobby of breeding Leghorn chickens. Otherwise to the end of his days, he remained firm in his resolve neither to meet her nor acknowledge her publicly.

It is probably true that if Chakrabongse had begged to be forgiven for his marriage, his father�s attitude might have been different, but he was a proud young man and never brought himself to do so. In the course of one particular discussion the King reminded him that when marrying he should have remembered that he was second in the line of succession, and also enquired what titles he would expect a possible son of his to have. Chakrabongse answered roughly, �Oh anything. What does it matter? Plain mister will do!�

This petulant remark ceased to be of mere academic interest on Saturday 28th March 1908, for at 11.58pm on that day, Katya gave birth to a son. The exact hour of this event is known as Prince Chakrabongse hoped fervently that his child would come into the world on a Saturday, as both he and the Crown Prince had done. Watch in hand, he was delighted when the infant obliged him � if only by two minutes!

Servants at Paruskavan Palace.

Early next morning, the Chinese Minister accompanied them on a carriage tour of the town, first with an escort of Japanese cavalry, and on arrival at the Chinese Quarter, by Chinese Mounted Police. In the centre of the walled city was Mukden Palace with a bright yellow and green porcelain roof and scarlet, carved wood supports. Inside the Treasury, they examined rare books and portraits of Chinese Emperors. But what impressed them most was a sumptuous gold-yellow Emperor�s coat embroidered with the five-fingered dragon and sewn with seed-pearls, a royal hunting-hat encrusted with precious stones and a lavishly decorated saddle.

From a three-storied pavilion in an inner courtyard, they had a fine view of Mukden and were plied with tea and champagne. After luncheon the Japanese and French Consuls saw them into their train, where they were provided with �an extremely grand carriage with two beautifully decorated drawing-rooms and a dining-room with the table already laid.�

At Tiehling a General joined them from the Brigade charged with Railway Security. �He was really of the old school, and much amused us by seizing every chance to bow, salute and click his heels with tremendous verve and precision. These soldiers have no European characteristics whatever.�

Chakrabongse recorded that the train made a short stop at Szepingkai, �Where the Russian Army made its last stand and where traces of their outposts were still visible.� By eight o�clock that night, they had reached �Changchun, the last station on the South Manchurian Railway, where the line connects with the Russian Railway.�

Although recorded in his usual laconic manner, this is a moment that must have been emotionally moving for both him and Katya, for it was five years since they had set foot on Russian soil. While to Katya it was naturally dear, as being her native land, it must also have been of great significance to Chakrabongse as the country where his most formative years had been spent � where he had worked so hard and so successfully � where he had fallen in love so madly, and participated in the glories of Imperial splendour, now inexorably in decline.

Chakrabongse continues:

Prince Chula aged three (bottom left) at the coronation parade of King Rama VI.

The assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his morganatic wife on 28th June 1914 at Sarajevo, followed by the Great Powers� declaration of war on Germany in August the same year, were events that had repercussions even in far-distant Siam. Although the King sided with the Allies in spirit, he could do little more at first, as public feeling ran strongly against the French for their high-handed annexation of Siamese territory in the past. In comparison, the Germans were relatively popular, being regarded only as friendly traders.

Rama VI however sought to ameliorate this antagonism by writing articles and translations of war news for various newspapers. These, although printed under a number of different pseudonyms, were known to be from the royal

pen, and doubtless in consequence had the advantage of certain publication. Chakrabongse, now a full General and Chief of the General Staff, was also ardently pro-Allies, and followed every move of the belligerents on huge maps set up in his study. He also eagerly gathered all available information about tactics and new weaponry for use in army training.

Katya�s reactions were naturally more personal, in which fears for her native land, her relations and friends, predominated and she suffered much from being so far away from the country she had so immediately volunteered to serve in the Russo-Japanese War. These particular concerns were shared to a large extent by her husband, because of his long association with Russia, and his high rank and standing in the Imperial Army. They both therefore looked forward impatiently to their next visit to Russia, due to take place in the course of 1917, during which Chakrabongse had been invited by the Tsar to accompany him to the Front.

In the meantime, Chakrabongse�s duties continued unabated. As well as work in Bangkok, he also made inspection tours in the provinces and in 1915 he, Katya and Chula made an extended trip up country to Nan, Prae, Chieng Mai and Chieng Rai.

In 1916, instead of the customary regional exercises, Chakrabongse organised Grand Manoeuvres lasting four days, in which 20,000 to 30,000 troops participated. Under canvas himself and fulfilling the role of Chief Umpire, he was able to put into practice much that he had learned from his intensive study of the European War; and to make use of machine-guns, field-telephones and seven aeroplanes! Great enthusiasm was engendered by the scale and scope of these exercises. Even Queen Saowabha temporarily forsook her nocturnal routine and, travelling by boat, landed at a series of designated places, where she was carried on a chair by her sailors to pavilions especially constructed for her reception. From these she had an excellent view of the proceedings and gratifying glimpses of four of her sons � the King, Chakrabongse, and two younger sons, respectively a battalion commander and a staff officer.

Her grandson accompanied her on these expeditions and wrote: �I shall never forget the sign of my father�s slight figure sitting on his white horse (more than likely this was the Russian veteran, Ramushka), when at the flash of his sword and word of command, twenty thousand men presented arms as one man.�

On 11th January 1917, The Siam Observer, notable for its remarkably full coverage of news from Russia, carried a report of the murder of Rasputin by Prince Yussoupoff, Grand Duke Dmitri and Captain Sukhotin on 29th December 1916, and commented on the monk�s �sinister and magnetic influence especially on the weaker sex�, a veiled reference to the unhealthy control he had exercised over the Russian Empress.

In February, Chakrabongse records in his diary that he went to see the newly-arrived Russian Ambassador, Loris Malikov: �He seems quite a nice chap, direct and to the point. He told me what had gone on in Petrograd before he came to Siam. He�s certain there�s going to be trouble. It seems the root cause was the meddling of the Empress and her monk, Rasputin. She listened only to him and forced the Emperor to do what he said. Everyone was and is dissatisfied.� The �trouble�, of course, was the imminence of revolution, and events now moved rapidly and inexorably toward the downfall of Imperial Russia with the abdication of the Emperor on 14th March at Pskov, and the establishment of the first Provisional Government headed by Prince Lvov, with Kerensky as Minister of Justice.

Naturally long before this, any hope of Chakrabongse and Katya�s journey to St Petersburg had been abandoned. Perhaps the gloom and heartbreak they felt may have lightened for an instant, when they learned that poor Chulasewok, now Chakrabongse�s ADC, balked of his first trip to Europe for which he had assembled a splendid wardrobe, had had himself, as some compensation for his disappointment, photographed in a number of striking poses, in costumes varying from an elegant lounge suit to white tie and tails, and full dress uniform!

In April Chakrabongse records in his diary that �we went to see Loris Malikov again, and remembering the importance of Easter to Russians, took him an Easter egg.� He then continued: �This Ambassador is very active and wants to make a name for himself�. (Not surprising when it is recalled that Malikov was the grandson of the General and powerful Minister who, among his many distinctions and achievements, was particularly responsible for persuading Alexander II to agree to a form of constitutional government, and in February 1881, had laid the draft before him. But only nine days later, this plan, which might have had incalculable consequences for the good of Russia, came to naught with the assassination of the Emperor, whose successor Alexander III preferred to return to the principles of autocratic power.)

Chakrabongse further noted: �Malikov wants Siam to join the Allies�. And, as Chakrabongse heartily endorsed this opinion, he went to discuss it with one of his Uncles, Prince Svasti, who was Foreign Minister, only to find to his disappointment that the Prince still wished to sit on the fence. Siam�s equivocal standing was finally resolved when America, after circularising all remaining neutral states, declared war on Germany and Austria in April 1917. This powerful addition to the Allied cause enabled Rama VI to sweep away remaining opposition, and Siam entered the war in July that same year. This led Robert Martignan to write in his book La Monarchie Absolue Siamoise that: �Chakrabongse, Prince of Bisnulok, principal and prime mover of the alliance, showed clairvoyant good sense�.

Under Chakrabongse�s direction, German and Austrians were interned, and about forty merchant ships were successfully taken over by the Siamese Navy, after an abortive attempt at blowing them up on the part of the Germans in order to foil their capture. A great extra burden of work was now laid on Chakrabongse�s willing shoulders, and he dreamed of commanding a mixed brigade in France if sufficient modern equipment could be supplied by the Allies. They, however, only agreed to accept a motor transport corps and about one hundred pilots. This reluctance, rightly or wrongly, was interpreted in Siam as being due to racial discrimination. In the event, the Motor Transport Corps saw some service, but the Siamese pilots were still being acclimatised and trained in France when the fighting ended with the declaration of the Armistice in November 1918.

One minor result of Siamese involvement in the war, was the redesigning of her flag. Until then, this had shown a white elephant on a scarlet ground. But as the representation of this revered animal, when flown on Allied occasions, appeared to Western eyes to resemble that more homely creature, the pig, Rama VI decided that five horizontal stripes in red, white, dark blue, white and red, would be more seemly and render further misapprehension impossible.

Working longer and later than even he had done before, Chakrabongse was probably unaware of how profoundly Katya suffered, not only from the known disastrous facts about her country, but from an ever-darkening cloud of uncertainty and apprehension that worse was to come. In the past, she would have been able to share her anxieties and grief with him, but swept along and away from her by a heavy programme of duties, he could not realise how isolated she felt. In addition, her health had not improved, and she was considerably debilitated by two distressing miscarriages.

Her Slav temperament, prone to extremes of ebullient joy or black despair, hindered her from rising above her deep depression and, although complying with the demands made on her by her position, she felt them as �demands� and did not undertake them wholeheartedly. For underlying all she did was a nostalgia for Russia � the snow, the bubbling samovar, and voices speaking her native tongue, voices that for all she knew might now be stilled in death or only faintly heard in echoing vaults of prisons.

During October 1917 there had been serious flooding, causing hardship and grave damage to city and countryside. The carefree young in Bangkok, paddling boats along the drowning avenues and boulevards laid out by Chulalongkorn, took thoughtless pleasure in the disaster. But Katya�s beautiful gardens at Paruskavan as they slipped and gradually disappeared beneath the rising flood, washed away her remaining equilibrium and she underwent a severe nervous breakdown.

She was so unwell and so unlike herself, and her �lovely smile�, that her mother-in-law had remarked on long ago, became so marked by its absence that Chakrabongse, during his rare hours of leisure, many of which were spent at Hua Hin, grew to rely on the more active companionship of a group of young people, one of whom was his niece Princess Bimrambai, daughter of his half-brother, Prince Rabi. Here, while Katya worked alone in the garden she loved and had created, he played tennis, swam and went for strenuous climbing expeditions with this pretty lively girl and her light-hearted friends, finding in their undemanding company, relaxation from the exhausting days of driving work in Bangkok. At length he suggested that Katya might benefit from a complete change. He was far too busy to take a holiday himself, and in any case it seems that at this stage of their marriage, both welcomed the prospect of being apart for a while.

In April 1918 therefore, Katya set off on an extended tour of China, Japan and Canada, travelling with her faithful Cham. By this time, her brother Vanya was living in Peking, as were many escaping Russian refugees. No doubt, if she could not go to Russia, the thought of seeing her brother again and meeting other Russians must have seemed better than nothing. She was also accompanied by Edward Healey, architect of their house at Hua Hin, who had become something of a family friend and in this instance was to act as a sort of courier, responsible for smoothing out the irritations and difficulties of foreign travel. Well known later for his design of the Siam Society building on Astoke Road, photographs show him to have been good-looking and moustached with a genial expression and a certain rakish tilt to his panama � an odd choice as an escort, one would have thought, for a young married woman on her own.

Although she had virtually withdrawn from the world since Chulalongkorn died in 1910, the death of this lively, volatile and dictatorial, lady removed the focal point of existence from her sons, grandson and relations, as she had exerted a power akin to that of a revered image in a temple, always to be found and bowed down to in the same place.

In addition to the prolonged strain of the funeral rites, other tensions made themselves felt among the royal mourners. For as well as relations being at a low ebb between the King and Chakrabongse, there were also rumours of plots against the King, whose unpopularity had been growing.

Together with three other generals, Chakrabongse, at this time, had become president of a committee established to work on a scheme for retiring a number of inefficient senior officers. Even before the committee had published its findings he had received an anonymous letter stating that as his loyalty to the King was unquestioned, he himself was to be removed before the King was also put out of the way. The letter obligingly named the officer entrusted with poisoning him.

Convinced that this letter was an angry response to his retirement scheme, Chakrabongse boldly sent a copy of it to the officer in question with his compliments! However, despite this stylish gesture, the atmosphere of hatred and suspicion engendered by such sinister threats, his profound grief at his mother�s death, combined with his usual load of work and responsibilities, began to overwhelm him. Eventually he was driven to request leave from the King to take an extended holiday.

This being granted, he set about organising a leisurely trip by boat to Singapore, to be followed by a return train journey up the Malay Peninsular to end in the peace of familiar surroundings at Hua Hin. With respite from his arduous life in sight, he dealt with a lighter heart with his remaining commitments and engagements before he departed. One of these was a military dinner in honour of a visiting British General at the Ministry of Defence, an elegant colonial style building just opposite the Grand Palace. Not only Chakrabongse, but the three other Generals concerned with him in the officers� retirement plan were present. The evening seems to have been routine and unmemorable, although later it would be recalled that there was a brief failure of electricity, which plunged the room in darkness for a few minutes.

On 4th June, Chakrabongse and his aide-de-camp, Chavalit and his son, set out for Singapore on the Katong, owned by the Straits Steamship Company. Despite torrential rain, the little party was in holiday mood, and Chakrabongse, in particular, although he got a soaking walking from his car to the ship, stood about chatting cheerfully to relations and friends who had come to see him off.

However, by the next afternoon, he had developed a feverish cold and decided to stay in his bunk. Chula was much perturbed, for his father had a soldierly disregard for physical ills, and the boy feared he must be really unwell to retire in this way. Unfortunately, Chavalit, in her heedless manner, did not share his concern. Only seventeen, and extremely immature, she repeatedly urged Chakrabongse to get up and come on deck, saying the fresh air would do him good. This he eventually did on the day before the ship reached Singapore, though by then he had a painful cough. No one could gainsay him, however, certainly not his anxious son. Not only was he unaccustomed to giving in to illness, but, as the lover of a young girl twenty years his junior, was probably determined to appear strong and youthful in her eyes.

Even so, when they reached their hotel in Singapore on 8th June, he felt so exhausted that he sent Chula and Chavalit for a drive around the town, saying that he hoped to feel better by lunch time. When they returned he felt, if anything, worse and kept to his bed. It so happened that a millionaire Chinese merchant, a resident of Singapore who knew Chakrabongse through business dealings in Bangkok, called to see him. Finding him so unwell, he instantly proposed that he and his party would be more comfortable at his house, whence they gratefully removed.

An English doctor was summoned, who diagnosed Spanish influenza. This was a particularly virulent form of the complaint that swept the world after the First World War, and was responsible for many deaths. Unfortunately it was complicated by double pneumonia in Chakrabongse�s case. On hearing this, the aide-de-camp, now thoroughly alarmed, sent telegrams to the King and Ministry of War while poor Chakrabongse, only 37, dictated a farewell letter to his brother Vajiravudh and a new will, both of which he managed to sign, albeit barely legibly. Having thus tacitly recognised his serious condition, he appeared relieved and joked and laughed almost naturally, but by the following day he was completely delirious.

On 13th June, his unhappy son was awakened early and led to his dying father�s bedside. He later described the scene with words that convey in stark simplicity the anguish he felt:

�I was then twelve years old. I helped to join his hands together in prayer and tried to make him repeat the name of the Buddha, which I had been taught was the best thing one could do at the approach of death. He was able to do so, but would occasionally relapse into delirious mutterings. He was thirsty but could only take water in small spoonfuls. He fought magnificently. Then he could no longer drink even a spoonful of water. At 1.50 pm he died. As the English doctor bent down to close his eyes, I think I must have aged about ten years. After making the profoundest obeisance to my father�s corpse, I then left the room and asked the aide-de-camp to send a cable to my mother.

�More vividly than when my grandmother died, I realised that the life I had known or expected to have, was quite at an end, and henceforth I would stand completely alone.�

That same evening Prince Prajadhipok, Chakrabongse�s youngest brother, arrived with his wife Princess Rambai Barni and the long drawn-out tragic return to Siam was set in motion. Along a road lined with British troops, on a Royal Garrison Artillery gun carriage, the coffin, covered with the Siamese flag and accompanied by a full military band, wound its way slowly to the railway station while the guns at Canning Fort fired a thirty-seven gun salute - one salute for each year of Chakrabongse�s life.

A halt on this last journey before reaching the capital, was made at Hua Hin, scene of much simple happiness which had ended so suddenly and unexpectedly. Virtually the entire village turned out to show respect and to mourn not only a prince but a friendly and well-liked neighbour. On arrival at Bangkok, when the cortege was met by the King and all the Royal Family, the officer in charge of a battalion of King Chulalongkorn�s Own Bodyguard was so distressed by the occasion, that he was barely able to utter the words of command.

There followed the lengthy lying-in-state in what had been the ballroom at Paruskavan. As with his mother just eight months before, Chakrabongse�s body was encased in a metal urn which in turn was housed in an elaborately carved wooden urn decorated with gold leaf and precious stones. Before the fateful trip and following the death of his mother, Chakrabongse had mused out loud to his son, �When I die you will have to arrange for the ceiling to be pierced to accommodate the urn�, little thinking that his prophecy would come true so soon and that an octagonal hole would indeed have to be cut, a task organised by another of Chakrabongse�s brothers, the architect Prince Asdang. In the room amidst a profusion of flowers and candles, were displayed not only the deceased�s regalia, but all his uniforms and many foreign decorations, including the splendid scarlet of the last Russian Emperor�s Own Hussar Guards - a poignant reminder of the forever vanished past.

A copy of Prince Chakrabongse�s revised will made while very ill leaving everything to Princess Chavalit including the guardianship of Prince Chula.

Everyone was kind to Chula, bereft of his mother, grandmother and above all his revered father, in the space of a few short months. During the customary 100 days before his cremation, the Prince was sincerely mourned, not only by his family as they gathered for the customary weekly services in his memory, but by the nation as a whole.

Phra Sarasas, formerly Chula�s tutor and headmaster of the Military College wrote in his book My Country Siam: �It was a misfortune that Prince Chakrabongse, heir to the throne, should have died before he was crowned. He epitomised all the desirable characteristics of a King. His character was a compound of earnestness, deference, pleading and dignity, with a profound sense of patriotism and democracy.� Although in fact only Heir Presumptive, a position he would have lost should Vajiravudh have produced an heir, at the time of his death, there is little doubt that he was widely regarded as probably the next king of Siam.

Telegrams to Katya informing her of Prince Chakrabongse�s illness and death.

Robert Martignan in La Monarchie Absolue Siamoise stated:

�His death deprived Siam of one of her best sons. His intelligence, his military worth, the loyalty of his character and the clarity of his spirit, the Sovereign and the nation would lack at a time when they were most needed.�

To add to the profound sadness at the death of so young and able a man, who might well have had another 30 years of life still before him, disquieting rumours were circulating about the sinister coincidence that the three generals, colleagues of Chakrabongse, who had also attended the dinner at the Ministry of Defence, had all been stricken with Spanish influenza at about the same time, two having died and the third just managing to shake it off and survive. The failure of electricity during the dinner, combined with the known fact that Chakrabongse had received an anonymous letter warning he would be poisoned, led some to surmise that in the dark while the lights were out, germ-laden knives and forks had been substituted for those used by the victims.

Even the name of the French director of the Pasteur Institute, Dr Leopold Robert, was bandied about as having supplied the poison. The motive for his cooperation in so deadly a design was, it was said, Chakrabongse�s well-known antagonism towards the French for their annexation of Laos and Cambodia in the reign of Chulalongkorn. Is it possible that an Heir Presumptive, who might well one day have become King, was thought sufficiently detrimental to French interests to necessitate his removal along with others known to be his close associates? Whether the technology of the time could have cultured and prepared such germs is not known and whatever the truth may be about Chakrabongse�s mysterious and tragic end, no investigation or enquiry was ever made. Today over 70 years later it is impossible to arrive at any definite conclusions.

A hard-headed, hard-working career diplomat with no private fortune, he had achieved great success in his profession and spoke fourteen languages, including many Eastern dialects. And, even after his diplomatic career was terminated by the Revolution, he had soon obtained an excellent position as a Director of the Chinese Eastern Railway.

During their last meeting in Bangkok when he had attempted to dissuade his sister from leaving her husband, he had also informed her of his own marriage and that he was the proud father of an infant son, also named Ivan. Not unnaturally under the circumstances, Katya had been too distracted to learn more about her sister-in-law except that her name was Olga and that, but for the upheaval of the Revolution, she and Ivan would never have met.

This was because, like many of her fellow countrymen, Olga had fled before the Bolshevik menace, walking from Kazan to Ufa with her friend Marussia. At Ufa quite by chance they met one of Olga�s uncles, who generously gave them a red blanket, beneath which they shivered a little less than they would have done, jolting for one month across the Siberian Plain in a cattle truck to reach their destination, Omsk. This was where Admiral Kolchak had based the headquarters of one of the White anti-revolutionary forces in an heroic but doomed endeavour to weld their many factions together. Here Olga and Marussia joined a settlement of about sixty refugees, sheltered in a dilapidated abandoned mansion.

Also at Omsk was General Sir Alfred Knox, Chief of the British Military Mission to Siberia, who was more comfortably accommodated in a special train. Sir Alfred had not only spent many years in Russia as Military Attache at the British Embassy, but was evidently a man of feeling with great sympathy for the dispossessed refugees. He hired a cook and found a stove for them, though there was precious little food to prepare, and milk when available was sold by the frozen plateful. And on discovering that Olga slept on a table under the stairs, covered only by her trusty red blanket, he somehow tracked down a camp-bed and bedding, which made her staircase nook comparatively homely. Despite the discomfort and disadvantages of living in this makeshift fashion, after their meagre evening meal the refugees sang and played folk and gypsy music, though far from homes they might never see again, and facing a harsh future � if indeed they had one.

In addition to his great knowledge of Russia, Sir Alfred loved music and therefore delighted in Olga�s glorious voice and doubtless in her great good looks, for she was a tall statuesque beauty with magnificent eloquent eyes. Also to Omsk eventually came Katya�s brother, Ivan Desnitsky, sent by the Russian Minster in Peking under the purposely vague title of �Advisor�, to report on Kolchak and the situation at Omsk. Besides his official duties, this plain hitherto unromantic man fell in despairing undeclared love with the captivating Olga, who remained serenely unaware of the havoc she had wrought in his troubled heart. It was the observant Sir Alfred, by now unhappily convinced that the days of the Kolchak regime were numbered, who drew her attention to this fact.

Taking her aside one day, he advised her in no uncertain terms to get out of Omsk. �But where to?� �To Peking: �Peking?� �Yes, don�t you realise that the Advisor is madly in love with you? Marry him and leave � the sooner the better!� So on 29th September, Olga became Madame Desnitsky and the bridal couple left the same evening for China. In this manner, though it could hardly be called a love-match on her part, Ivan acquired a beautiful charming wife, and Katya a sister-in-law.

No mention exists in a diary, letter or even a postcard, of Katya�s arrival in Peking, but one imagines she must have stayed awhile with her brother and Olga before moving to Shanghai and renting a small house for herself in Wankashaw Gardens.

As Katya found herself in a city teeming with refugees, some in a deplorable state of destitution, others resolutely taking almost any employment however grand their previous status might have been, she energetically set about joining the Russian Benevolent Society. And being an excellent organiser, with practical nursing experience, she was welcomed with open arms, and soon found her days well-filled with committee and welfare work. She reverted to her maiden name, calling herself Madame Desnitsky, but the contrast in this existence of earnest endeavour, living in a small house on a small income, with the opulent ease and aura of royalty surrounding her at Paruskavan, must have seemed very great.

Katya�s duties took her sometimes far afield, and although the hours passed rapidly enough while she was absorbed in work, on return to her dull empty house, the bitter regretful memories that surged into her heart made the evenings seem longer and more lonely. Partly because of this and partly because her brother had represented to her that it was unwise, even unsafe, for her to be so completely isolated, she decided to let her top floor and quite soon succeeded in finding two lodgers, a Swedish businessman and an American engineer employed by the American General Electric Company. Although it was true she seldom saw them except when they came to pay their rent, she could hear them moving overhead, and the sound of their footsteps on the stairs, a door slamming or their muted voices, relieved to some extent her utter solitude.

But suddenly one night, the electric light failed, and groping about in pitch darkness, she realised she had no idea where the fuse-box was or how to mend a fuse even if she found it. After some hesitation, she therefore brought herself to call for help from the engineer, who promptly came to her aid and soon put all to rights. And afterwards in the restored illumination, on getting a closer look at his pretty landlady, he stayed to chat and to her great surprise, but not entirely to her displeasure, before leaving he drew her to him and kissed her good-night.

He followed this bold move a few days later by asking her to dine and Katya, finding him congenial, also took pleasure in shaking out and wearing some of her elegant dresses again, and being escorted by an attractive man. She came to look forward to seeing him and, although he was not at all the type to appeal to the cosmopolitan Europeans clustered around her sister-in-law, the latest report on �Katya and her American� was looked forward to.

Harry Clinton Stone was from Portland, Oregon and had served with the American forces in the War. Although good-looking in a tall rangy way with rather cold grey eyes and pale complexion, his personality was irredeemably provincial and the unexceptional sentiments and high-toned judgments he pronounced in a chilly nasal voice seemed so unimbued with genuine feeling as to sound insincere. He also possessed an apparently inexhaustible store of set �funny stories�, none of which were �risque� - a daring Continental word to which he was addicted � but all dull. These set-pieces and chunks of accurate information on a wide variety of subjects made up his conversation, which was therefore stilted and somewhat lacking in spontaneity. Such drawbacks to enjoyment of his society would, however, not have been apparent to Katya who, although she spoke good careful English and understood it well enough for ordinary purposes, would be unlikely to recognise the banality of his opinions.

If she had searched the whole world over, she could hardly have met anyone more different from Chakrabongse and, perhaps to her bruised ego, this was part of Harry Stone�s attraction. In addition, his attentions slowly restored her faith in herself as a desirable woman, and she began to rely on him to add a dash of colour to her days.

Slowly the sharp pain of loss and thorny stabs of fierce jealousy caused by Chavalit lessened, and she began to dream of visiting America to meet Harry�s parents, referred to in special sanctified tones as �Dad and Mother�, to whom he had confided his happiness at meeting Katya in his weekly letters. He had a good position in the GEC and prospects seemed set fair and to be moving towards another phase in Katya�s strange life, perhaps to be lived in as different a clime as Siam had been from Russia. Even so, although she continued to feel she was right to leave Chula with his father instead of exposing him to the hazards of whatever fate had in store for her, she often yearned for him and relived in memory their mutual happiness as mother and son.

Sometimes haunting fears for her relatives in the Ukraine, natural preoccupations which Katya shared with other refugees, plunged her into Slavonic gloom but the telegram she received on 13th June must have driven all other considerations from her mind. For in that telegram, the king told her that Chakrabongse was dead. She could not believe it, and at first experienced that sensation of uncomprehending stupefaction that postpones immediate acceptance of tragedy till the mind feels more able to support it.

So it was that, only eleven months after they had parted, Katya returned to Bangkok where the King had placed a fully-staffed house at her disposal so that she might attend Chakrabongse�s cremation in September. She was treated with every mark of consideration and respect but, though Chula spent much time with her, he continued to live at Paruskavan in the affectionate care of his nurse Cham, and where Chavalit remained discreetly in residence.

Towards the end of 1925, Vajiravudh in poor health, distressed by the failure of his matrimonial ventures and burdened with heavy debt mostly due to his personal over-generosity, fell very ill, and the news that Queen Suvadhana had given birth to his child was brought to him only on his death-bed. Gently caressing the baby girl, whose sex debarred her from succeeding him, he murmured resignedly, �Perhaps it is just as well�. Then knowing that death was near, he requested he should be moved to the Grand Palace where he sent for his brother Prajadhipok, whom he had indeed named as his successor and, after lingering on a few days, he died on 26th November.

During these years Chula was embarking on the struggles of an English education. At first he was tutored in a small semi-detached house in Brighton by a clergyman. For him and his wife he has nothing but praise, saying, �he was a splendid teacher�, who took infinite pains to teach the young Prince colloquial English and the rudiments of French. �It was a far cry from Paruskavan�, he says cheerfully, describing how he tucked in to his first supper of tinned tomato soup and tinned salmon. When taken to church by the worthy pair, though dismayed by the plainness of the simple brick building compared with the glittering splendour of Siamese temples, he managed to explain in his rapidly improving English that, as he could hear no difference between the teaching of Jesus and the Buddha, he saw no reason to change his religion. His reasoning was clearly effective for, following his explanation, neither the tutor nor his wife discussed the matter with him again.

Pleasant though they were, a dispute between them and Phraya Buri, Siamese Minister in London, caused Chula�s removal in 1921 to the household of a vicar, this time in a country parish about 40 miles from London. Here there were twelve other boys, and all of them were obliged to attend church twice every Sunday.

His summer holidays were spent at the Legation in London with his uncle Prince Prajadhipok who, his nephew recounts, was �a fanatic shopper, hard at it from ten am until the shops closed, with only a short interval for luncheon!� As a change from this strenuous programme, in the remarkably hot August of 1922, he welcomed a motor-tour with his uncle in Switzerland during which they attended a session of the recently formed League of Nations under the presidency of Dr Wellington Koo. The three Siamese delegates, however, could not have been particularly effective, as one was deaf, one had a bad throat and could hardly be heard when he spoke, and the third was incapacitated by chronic headache.

It was during this trip that Chula first heard that his Mother had remarried and was now Mrs. Clinton Stone. Though hurt at first at not having been informed of it sooner, he was overjoyed when, at the end of August, she paid her first visit to England to see him. Katya had previously been to stay with her new in-laws, �Dad and Mother�, and had not concealed from Chula in her letters that she disliked America and was �bored by the dreadful middle-class people� she had had to mix with in her husband�s home town of Portland, Oregon. Doubtless in a wise wish to spend some time with her son before introducing him to his stepfather. Harry Stone did not join them until September when, according to Chula, �they had a lot of fun together�. And it may well have been Chula who nicknamed him �Hin� which means �stone� in Siamese. However that may be, Hin he became and remained thereafter to everyone.

By now Chula had decided to go in seriously for racing and to act himself as Bira�s manager. That the two of them, together with the first rate technicians they assembled, made a wonderful team is, of course, motor-racing history. When, in his first race in the new car at Dieppe on 20th July 1935 Bira came in second, Chula realised that the White Mouse team (so-called after Chula�s Thai nickname of mouse) could be a serious contender in light car racing.

Chula had clearly inherited, along with his father�s industry, his talent for organisation. This was obviously recognised by the Racing Correspondent of The Times, who wrote when Bira won the International Trophy at Brooklands in May 1939: �Bira�s success was as well-deserved as his frequent victories always are. As a driver he possesses all the essential virtues, skill, coolness, and sympathy with the mechanical functions of his car. But these in themselves would be unavailing if it were not for the thoroughness with which his cousin Prince Chula attends to every detail of the organisation. Bira�s cars are beautifully turned out. There is never a hint of last minute rush, and his pit control is what others would do well to copy.�

An invitation to Prince Chula and Lisba�s wedding luncheon.

My parents were deeply concerned and troubled, faced with a prospect they could never have envisaged for one of their four daughters. They had also, of course, to face the pain of separation, for Lisba inevitably would spend much of her future life in a country and among people of whom they knew next to nothing. My father, in particular, felt unhappy and bereft, for he was especially fond of Lisba. For myself, as I have said, convinced that theirs was an enduring love, I gave them unreserved support, which in no way prevented me from understanding how my mother and father felt. It did mean, however, that inwardly I thought little of our relations � unanimously �shocked� and �dismayed�, writing letters of �condolence� instead of congratulation, telephoning their �sympathy� and in one case calling personally to enquire if Chula was really black.

Today, over fifty years later, now that prejudice against mixed marriage has weakened, these attitudes seem strangely narrow and exaggerated, but then it made for a fraught and trying situation, which in a way was relieved when the wedding took place and became an accomplished fact. But although my father remained cordial and composed at the Registry Office and the Siamese Legation afterwards, I can still remember his lonely figure as he wandered away on his own to hide his feelings.

Katya and Hin were not among the family and few close friends who were present, and Chula explains in one of his books that �My Mother did not come over from Paris due to the tenseness of the political situation as we expected war to be declared at any moment.�

But I wondered then and still do whether this was quite true, or whether it may have been a kind of jealousy that kept Katya from the marriage of her only son? Not so much the traditional animosity of the mother-in-law against the usurping daughter-in-law, but perhaps Katya, now plain Mrs. Stone, may have been unwilling to witness Lisba become Princess Chula, as she had become Mom Katerin so long ago.

After a brief honeymoon in the West Country, Lisba and Chula returned to the London flat and, in October, taking advantage of the still prevailing though uneasy peace, together with Bira, Ceril and Abhas, they sailed to Siam � for the last time as it happened � for they returned in March 1939 and in June that same year the country�s name was changed to Thailand.

After the false promise of the Munich Agreement, the outbreak of war on 3rd September 1939 brought customary life to a standstill while people considered how to meet the occasion: what if anything could continue as before and what was irreparably changed and would never be the same again. As Thailand had declared her neutrality, Chula at first thought of returning to Bangkok, but sailings were so difficult, and even when arranged, liable to postponement or cancellation, that after packing and unpacking three or four times, he decided to stay in England.

He advised his mother, now living at her country property, Le Mesle, to take advantage of her American citizenship and depart with Hin to the States. But Katya and Hin, with blind faith in the �impregnable� Maginot Line, at first refused to move. However, to Chula�s great dismay and surprise, Thailand was invaded by the Japanese in 1941, swiftly capitulated and, worse still, declared war on Britain and the United States. Feeling that this untoward event put him in a most delicate position, Chula came to the conclusion that his best move would be to retire from London and live quietly and unobtrusively away from the capital for the duration. Lisba and I were therefore despatched to Cornwall to search for a suitable furnished house. After some adventures and many misadventures inspecting numbers of dirty, dilapidated places, inhabited by people of repellent habits to judge by the broken furniture and grimy kitchens, or vast dank mansions unheated but for rickety oilstoves, we began to despair and face the unenviable prospect of conveying to Chula that our mission had failed.

Hunting through our pile of glowing descriptions of properties which we had found eminently �undesirable�, we spotted �Lynham Farm, Rock, a charming modernised farmhouse, small, well-established garden and tennis-court, overlooking a beautiful estuary�. We drove off with no confidence in the description but, as we crossed the threshold, we felt at once we had come home. It was quite delightful: low-ceilinged, thick-walled, furnished with great taste, fresh chintzes and pale unemphatic wall paper and paint; it was also roomy enough to contain a considerable household.

Eventually after all business details had been settled, a cavalcade left London consisting of Chula and Lisba, Bira and Ceril, Shura Rahm (who had been an active member of the motor racing �equipe�), Chula�s Thai clerk Bian; a manservant, a cook, two racing-cars, two dogs and a remarkable bird, a Malaysian Grackle, black with a white waistcoat, who would puff out his chest and bow in stately fashion like a tail-coated butler.

The arrival of a Royal Highness with such an entourage caused no little stir in the village and, for weeks after they had settled in, the local house agents with the delightful and euphonious name of Button, Menhennit & Mutton, displayed a small hand-written notice in their window reading: �Lynham Farm, let to HRH Prince Chula of Thailand by us.�

As Chula still remained convinced that Katya would be better off in America during the war, he and Lisba managed to reach Le Mesle the day before his mother�s birthday, which was 10th May. Early next morning, his argument that she should leave was powerfully reinforced by the ground beneath their feet shaking with heavy gunfire � a grim warning that the �phoney war� was over and the German invasion had begun. The fall of Sedan on 14th May finally clinched the matter, and eventually Katya and Hin, accompanied by Poum, reached the States via Spain and Portugal.

Katya�s letters to her son from Portland, Oregon, are uniformly dull, unenlivened by any personal touches, and might well have been written by anyone of the �dreary middle-class people� amongst whom she found herself until the conflict ended. They abound in domestic detail: a row with the man next door about alterations to their garage; disparagement of American food; scandalously high prices. Concern over Hin�s health and relief when the doctor pronounces he is not going blind and, on another occasion, that a feared heart-attack was only bad indigestion. One hopes eagerly for some word of Poum � what did he make of Portland, Oregon? What did Portland, Oregon, make of him? But we only hear that he has been fitted with new spectacles! �People here feel I�m different from them, from a different rank of society�. �I don�t really like their houses though they all have much more money to spend than we have�. �There is always much work to do in the house but none offered to come to my help.�

Meanwhile at Lynham it was not long before the household was in running order, a fairly strict order so that it resembled nothing so much as a miniature court ruled by a generally benevolent autocrat. For although Chula had quite accepted his role as a private individual, he never really forgot that he came from a long line of kings and princes, and that his clear decisive mind and talent for organisation inherited from his admired father, might have been employed in a wider sphere.

He had inherited his family�s penchant for rising about noon and staying up late and sometimes, after the guest or guests had begun to droop and wilt as dawn chilled and infiltrated the convivial gathering, his mind remained alert, eager to hunt a subject through all the coverts of argument to a final conclusion he found satisfactory. He was extremely industrious and devoted himself for a set period every day to his literary projects: not only historical works in Thai, but a volume of reminiscences � Brought up in England � and several books on motor-racing in English.

Work finished for the day, he expected to be amused not only by his immediate entourage, but by the many visitors who came to stay or were entertained to a meal. These included characters as diverse as ex-Queen Rambai of Thailand, a widow now that her husband ex-King Prajadhipokhad died in 1941; Noel Coward who came to dinner, the recently widowed Duchess of Kent, who came to tea with her two children, Jack Buchanan the musical comedy star and, not only many of Chula and Lisba�s friends and relations, but also those of Bira and Ceril.

Eileen and Lisba in Thailand