Prajadhipok - Life After Abdication

Life After Abdication

He spent the rest of his life with Queen Rambhai Barni in England. At the time of abdication, the couple was living at Knowle House, in Surrey, just outside London. However, this house was not really suitable for his health, so they moved to Glen Pammant, still in Surrey, a smaller house but with more walking space. They remained there for two years. The couple had no children, but adopted the infant grandson of one of King Chulalongkorn's full brothers. (The adopted, Prince Jirasakdi, would later serve as a pilot in Britain's Air Transport Auxiliary. He died when the plane he was flying crashed in 1942.)

They moved again to Vane Court, the oldest house in the village of Biddenden in Kent. He led a peaceful life there, gardening in the morning and writing his autobiography in the afternoon.

In 1938 the royal couple moved to Compton House, in the village of Wentworth in Virginia Water, Surrey.

Due to bombing by the German Luftwaffe in 1940, the couple again moved, first to a small house in Devon, and then to Lake Vyrnwy Hotel in Powys, Wales, where the former king suffered a heart attack.

The couple returned to Compton House, as he expressed his preference to die there. King Prajadhipok died from heart failure on 30 May 1941.

His cremation was held at the Golders Green Crematorium in North London. It was a simple affair attended by just Queen Ramphai and a handful of close relatives. Queen Ramphaiphanni stayed at Compton House for a further eight years before she returned to Thailand in 1949, bringing the King's ashes back with her.

Written only up to the point when he was 25, the King's autobiography was left unfinished.