Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...

Phin Choonhavan ( th, ผิน ชุณหะวัณ; ; August 14, 1891 – 26 January 1973) was a Thai military leader and

Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand The deputy prime minister of Thailand () is a ministerial position within the government of Thailand The Government of Thailand, or formally the Royal Thai Government ( Abrv: RTG; th, รัฐบาลไทย, , ), is the unitary gov ...

. Phin was a leader of several coups against the government, most notably the 1947 coup. During

the Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he commanded the Phayap Army's 3rd Division before being made military governor of the

Shan States The Shan States (1885–1948) were a collection of minor Shan kingdoms called ''muang'' whose rulers bore the title ''saopha'' in British Burma. They were analogous to the princely states of British India. The term "Shan States" was firs ...

, which Thailand had occupied during the Burma Campaign. Phin was the son of a Chinese physician, Kai () who migrated to Siam from

Chaoshan Chaoshan or Teoswa (; peng'im: ''Dio5suan1'' i̯o˥˥꜖꜖.sũ̯ã˧˧ is a cultural-linguistic region in the east of Guangdong, China. It is the origin of the Min Nan Chaoshan dialect (). The region, also known as Chiushan in Cantonese, con ...

, as was the father of his wife, Lim Hong (), who was also an immigrant from

Shantou Shantou, alternately romanized as Swatow and sometimes known as Santow, is a prefecture-level city on the eastern coast of Guangdong, China, with a total population of 5,502,031 as of the 2020 census (5,391,028 in 2010) and an administrative ...

. His son,

Chatichai Choonhavan Chatichai Choonhavan ( th, ชาติชาย ชุณหะวัณ, , ; 5 April 1920 – 6 May 1998) was a Thai army officer, diplomat and politician. From 1986 to 1991, he was the chairman of the Thai Nation Party and served as the Prim ...

, became

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

of Thailand. His daughter, Udomlak, married

Phao Sriyanond Police General Phao Siyanon ( th, เผ่า ศรียานนท์, also spelled Sriyanond and Sriyanon; 1 March 1910 – 21 November 1960) was a director general of Thailand's national police who was notorious for his excesses against po ...

, director general of the Thai police. Another daughter, Charoen, married

Pramarn Adireksarn Pramarn Adireksarn ( th, ประมาณ อดิเรกสาร, , 31 December 1913 – 20 August 2010) was a Thai military officer and politician. He was a co-founder and chairman of the Thai Nation Party, deputy prime minister and minist ...

, who served as deputy prime minister in several governments.

References

* Paul M. Handley, "

The King Never Smiles ''The King Never Smiles'' is an unauthorized biography of Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej by Paul M. Handley, a freelance journalist who lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in Thailand. It is published by Yale University Press and was re ...

" Yale University Press: 2006,

Phin Choonhavan Field Marshal Phin Choonhavan ( th, ผิน ชุณหะวัณ; ; August 14, 1891 – 26 January 1973) was a Thai military leader and Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand. Phin was a leader of several coups against the government, most nota ...

1891 births 1973 deaths

Burma in World War II

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