Field Marshal Chakrabongse Bhuvanath, the Prince of Bishnulok ( th, จักรพงษ์ภูวนาถ; ; 3 March 1883 – 13 June 1920), was the 40th child of King Chulalongkorn and the fourth child of Queen Sri Bajarindra.

Biography

The prince was sent to the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

in his teens, where he studied at the

Page Corps The Page Corps (russian: Пажеский корпус; french: Corps des Pages) was a military academy in Imperial Russia, which prepared sons of the nobility and of senior officers for military service. Similarly, the Imperial School of Jurispr ...

. He returned to Siam with an honorary commission in a Hussar regiment and a wife,

Catherine Desnitski Catherine Desnitski ( ua, Катерина Десницька) (27 April 1886 – 3 January 1960) was a Russian noblewoman, a participant in the Russo-Japanese War and the holder of the Cross of St. George (1904). She was the wife of the Siames ...

from

Lutsk Lutsk ( uk, Луцьк, translit=Lutsk}, ; pl, Łuck ; yi, לוצק, Lutzk) is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Volyn Oblast (province) and the administrative center of the surrounding Lu ...

(at that time part of the

), whom he had married in 1906. The Prince and his wife lived with their son, Prince

Chula Chakrabongse Chula Chakrabongse ( th, จุลจักรพงษ์; ; 28 March 1908 – 30 December 1963), was a member of the family of the Chakri Dynasty of Thailand and of the House of Chakkraphong. He was the only child of Prince Chakrabongse Bhuva ...

, in Paruskavan Palace in Bangkok. They later divorced and he remarried the year before his death. The prince was a favourite son of both the King and Queen. He travelled extensively, visiting among other countries the US and United Kingdom in 1902. He also represented his father on foreign visits, such as for the funeral of King Umberto I of Italy in 1900, the wedding of

Crown Prince Wilhelm Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, Crown Prince of Prussia (Friedrich Wilhelm Victor August Ernst; 6 May 1882 – 20 July 1951) was the eldest child of the last ''Kaiser'', the German Emperor, Wilhelm II, and his consort Augusta Victoria of Schles ...

and Crown Princess Cecilie of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

in 1905, and the coronation of

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...

and Queen Mary of the United Kingdom in 1911. He and his brother Prince Purachatra, Commander of the Army Engineers, were instrumental in the development of aviation in the Kingdom. Prince Chakrabongse is best remembered today as the father of the army's Royal Aeronautical Service, a forerunner to the

Royal Thai Air Force "Royal Thai Air Force March" , mascot = , anniversaries = 9 April 1937 (Royal Thai Air Force Day) , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles ...

. Prince Chakrabongse served as Chief of Staff of the Royal Siamese Army until his death. He died from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

in 1920 at the age of 37.

Ancestry

References

His Royal Highness Prince Chakrabongse Bhuvanath, Prince of Bisnulok
1883 births 1920 deaths 19th-century Thai people 19th-century Chakri dynasty 20th-century Chakri dynasty Thai male Chao Fa Chakrabongse family Field marshals of Thailand Knights Grand Cordon of the Order of Chula Chom Klao Knights of the Ratana Varabhorn Order of Merit Knights Grand Commander (Senangapati) of the Order of Rama Recipients of the Dushdi Mala Medal, Pin of Arts and Science Deaths from pneumonia in Thailand Children of Chulalongkorn {{thailand-bio-stub