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Pin Malakul

Thai educator and writer

  • 14 min read
  • 5 chapters

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Through UNESCO, United Kingdom and Switzerland

Personal life

Early life and education

Mom Luang Pin Malakul was born on 24 October 1903 to Mom Rajawongse Pia and Thanpuying Sa-ngiam Malakul. He was the sixth of thirteen children (although the fourth, and the only son, to survive past infancy). His father, a nobleman and great-grandson of King Phuttha Loetla Naphalai, had served as King Vajiravudh's guardian during the King's overseas studies and held posts including Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Pia's work was instrumental in the establishment of higher education in Thailand (then known as Siam) and he later became the third Minister of Public Instruction under King Vajiravudh.

Pin recalled in his autobiography that although his mother was a kind and loving figure, his father was rather strict and acted more like a teacher than a father, and that he was often fearful of him. A loyal servant of the crown, Pia introduced Pin to King Vajiravudh when he was seven years old. Another often-recounted story from his childhood is that of how, before having learned to count, when his mother asked him to gather half a bunch of betel leaves for her, Pin set down to picking up one leaf with each hand at a time, separating them equally into two piles.

At the age of four, Pin began receiving preliminary education from teachers who came to teach at the family home on Damrongrak Road, next to Varadis Palace. He enrolled at Suankularb Wittayalai School (then known as Wat Ratchaburana School) shortly before turning seven in 1910, and after half a year his examination results placed him at Mathayom 1 level. In 1914 he was accepted into the Royal Pages School (now Vajiravudh College). Half a year later, King Vajiravudh named him one of eight Royal Page Students (นักเรียนมหาดเล็กรับใช้) in the king's personal service. Although he did not attend regular classes at the school afterwards, he passed exams at Mathayom 5 level (grade 11) at the end of the school year.

As a Royal Page Student, Pin's duties included various tasks in the royal household as well as accompanying the King in his various activities. The Royal Page Students were involved in plays and sports games held in court and also in activities of the King's scouting-related paramilitary movement, the Wild Tiger Corps. Pin also became an editor of the Dusit Samit Magazine, part of the King's Dusit Thani miniature city/micronation project. One memorable task appointed to him by the King was to determine the day of week King Naresuan left Ayutthaya for his famous elephant duel, a problem Pin was unable to solve at the time, but became the inspiration for his later development of the "Everlasting Calendar". He lived in the royal court most of the time and received a salary of twenty to thirty baht.

Life in Europe

In 1922, when Pin was eighteen years old, the Ministry of Public Instruction, in accordance with the King's wishes, granted him a government scholarship for a tertiary education in ancient Eastern languages in the United Kingdom. He departed aboard the MS Jutlandia on 23 January 1922 and arrived in London on 7 March.

During his first two years, Pin studied Pali and Sanskrit at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies and lived with Mr and Mrs L. J. Marshall of 23, Portland Place, Brighton, from whom he also received additional instruction in mathematics, English, and French. Such was his talent in mathematics that Mr Marshall, who was head of Mathematics and Surveying at Brighton Technical College, wrote to the Superintendent of Siamese Government Students recommending that Pin major in mathematics instead and saying that his skills would undoubtedly warrant a university scholarship for mathematical studies. This, however, did not suit the requirements of the Ministry of Public Instruction, and so Pin did not continue his mathematics education. Nevertheless, his interest in the field did not waver, and he continued to produce works on the subject. Among these are his publication in 1927 in Samaggi Sara, the journal of Samaggi Samagom (the Thai Association in the UK), of a formula which he called the "Everlasting Calendar", upon which he later based the development of a set of slide rules which could be used to calculate the day of week for any given date, and his publication of Miscellaneous Problems, a collection of various mathematical problems he had worked on, later in 1960.

In England Pin formed close friendships with fellow Thai students Prince Dulbhakara Worawan, Visuddhi Krairiksh, and Phanom Thephasdin, the first of which with whom he had been friends since their time as Royal Page Students. He also developed a taste for opera and classical music, on which he recalled spending quite a disproportionate amount of his scholarship's allowance, eventually building a collection of 317 records.

Pin was accepted into Brasenose College of the University of Oxford in 1924, where he studied in the Honour School of Oriental Studies for four years. He graduated with a BA degree on 28 June 1928. He then enrolled in a one-year course in education also at Oxford, according to the wishes of the Ministry of Public Instruction. He practice-taught at The Latymer School during the school year, but fell ill during the winter and again near the end of the school year late in the spring of 1929, which adversely affected his studies. He was later awarded the Oxbridge MA degree on 15 October 1931.

After finishing his studies, Pin accompanied Princess Kalyanga Sombati Kitiyakara on a one-month trip in Europe. Upon return to London, he attended the First World Conference on Adult Education on behalf of Siam, but during the same time his health deteriorated further, and he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Accordingly, his return trip to Siam had to be postponed in order for him to recover in Switzerland. There he spent almost two years in Davos and later Klosters, until September 1931 when he attended the League of Nations annual conference before returning to Siam via a Nippon Yusen ship departing from Naples, Italy. He finally arrived in Siam on 23 October 1931, after spending over nine years abroad.

Marriage

Pin married Miss Dussadeemala Krairiksh, daughter of Chao Phraya Mahithon and Thanpuying Klip, on 7 March 1932. They lived at the Krairiksh family home before building a house on the Damrongrak Road property, and finally settled at Soi Chaiyot on Sukhumvit Road in 1938. They had no children.

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