Major Khuang Aphaiwong Luang Kowit-aphaiwong |
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ควง อภัยวงศ์ | |
4th Prime Minister of Thailand | |
In office 1 August 1944 – 31 August 1945 |
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Monarch | Ananda Mahidol |
Preceded by | Plaek Phibunsongkhram |
Succeeded by | Tawee Boonyaket |
In office 31 January 1946 – 24 March 1946 |
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Preceded by | Seni Pramoj |
Succeeded by | Pridi Banomyong |
In office 10 November 1947 – 8 April 1948 |
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Monarch | Bhumibol Adulyadej |
Preceded by | Thawan Thamrongnawasawat |
Succeeded by | Plaek Phibunsongkhram |
Personal details | |
Born |
Phra Tabong Province, Siam, (Now Battambang, Cambodia) |
17 May 1902
Died | 15 March 1968 | (aged 65)
Nationality | Thai |
Political party | Democrat Party |
Spouse(s) | Lekha Kunadilok |
Religion | Theravada Buddhism |
Khuang Aphaiwong (17 May 1902 – 15 March 1968; Thai: ควง อภัยวงศ์, also spelled Kuang, Abhaiwong, or Abhaiwongse) was three times the prime minister of Thailand: from August 1944 to 1945, from January to May 1946, and from November 1947 to April 1948.
Khuang was born in Battambang (now in Cambodia), a son of the Siamese governor Chao Phraya Abhayabhubet. The Aphaiwongs were of royal Khmer lineage. Khuang attended Debsirin School and Assumption College, Bangkok, later studying engineering at the Ecole Centrale de Lyon in France. On his return to Thailand, he worked in the telegraph department, finally becoming director of the department. This earned him the feudal title Luang Kowit-aphaiwong. He married Lekha Kunadilok (Goone-Tilleke), daughter of Ceylon-born lawyer William Alfred Goone-Tilleke, founder of the law firm Tilleke & Gibbins.
Khuang was a member of the civil faction of Khana Ratsadon ("People's Party"), the group that promoted the Siamese revolution of 1932, that brought a regime change from absolute to constitutional monarchy. Afterwards, he served as minister without portfolio in the cabinets of Phraya Phahon Phonphayuhasena and Plaek Phibunsongkhram (Phibun). During World War II he was commissioned a major and joined the King's Guard. As such he was at the head of the mission to Battambang which in July 1941 took control of the Cambodian territories occupied during the Franco-Thai War, to be renamed Phra Tabong Province. His father had been governor of part of this region before it was ceded to France 1907. Later he became minister of commerce and communications.