Wan Waithayakon (วรรณไวทยากร)

Thai. Name of a grandson of King Mongkut (fig.), who was born on 25 August 1891. He studied at Oxford University and the Paris Institute of Political Studies, and was an Army Major General with the royal rank of Krom Meuan. In 1917, he became a career diplomat, serving as an advisor to King Rama VI in 1922, and in 1924 as undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, responsible for negotiating several important amendments to political and commercial treaties with Western powers. In 1926, he became an envoy to the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Belgium, while also serving as head of the Thai delegation to the League of Nations, later also being instrumental in negotiating Thailand's admission to the United Nations. Regarded as one of the founding fathers of philology criticism in Thailand, he in 1930 accepted a chair as professor at the Faculty of Arts of the Chulalongkorn University. Besides being appointed Ambassador to the United States in 1947, he also served concurrently as Ambassador to the United Nations, and in 1956 was elected President of the 11th Session of the United Nations' General Assembly, the first and only Thai national ever to hold this position, whilst also serving as Thailand's Permanent Representative to the United Nations. In addition, he also was Thailand's foreign minister from 1952 to 1957, and again in 1958. He passed away on 5 September 1976, at the age of 85. He is also known as Prince Narathip Phongpraphan, a name that is often transliterated Naradhip Bongsprabandh. See also POSTAGE STAMP. 回