H. M. Queen Sirikit of Thailand is a grandchild of Guardsman 1000 / 3. KMP / 1886, The Royal Danish Guard, who was an ordinary member of the Royal Guards Association, Copenhagen. Later he became an honorary member of the Association. (Until 1968 the Danish armed forces used numbers instead of names so Prince Klang was first called: "Recruit 1000" -  later: Garder  1000.)

Prince Satarn Klang was born in Bangkok 29. June 1866 as a son of Prince (Phra Worawongse Ther Phra Ong Chow) Sai Sanitwongse and Mom Khian Yamasamit. As his great-grandfather was a king, he was given the title: Mom Rajawongse.
In 1883 his father decided to send two sons, Mom Rajawongse Satarn Klang and Mom Rajawongse Pheen Leck, to Denmark where they were to receive an officers training and education.
Their companion on the voyage was the Dane Andreas Richelieu, who since 1875 had been an officer in the Royal Navy of Siam and who, the year before, had been promoted to Phra (the equivalent of the British "Sir") and commander in the Royal Navy of Siam.
( Andreas Richelieu later became an admiral in the Royal Navy of Siam. )
In April 1883 they travelled by train across India to Bombay, where a very angry Richelieu had to see the two prices expelled from a hotel which did not serve people of colour.
By ship they came to Paris and London, then via Hamburg to Aarhus, Denmark and finally they arrived in Copenhagen, two months after their departure from Bangkok.
I Copenhagen Klang and Pheen came to stay in Slagelsegade (Rosendalsgade) 18 with an ordinary Danish family, the family of senior school teacher (and a first lieutenant in the army reserve) Paul Dorph, who took very good care of the two Siamese brothers.
So did H. M.  King Christian IX. During the almost ten years they spent in Denmark they were almost every Sunday invited  to dine with the King and the royal family at the Amalienborg Palace.

From July  1883 Klang and Pheen had private tutors and attended courses in Copenhagen. In an application to the Ministry of War dated April 1, 1886  Paul Dorph writes:
“These two brothers are staying with my family... When they came to me they had a very rudimentary knowledge of the English language. For that reason they have had a difficult time until their education in other subjects could begin, but they have been very eager to learn and their serious diligence has helped them so that we have a realistic expectation that they will be able to reach the goals set for them. I want to add that they are a pair of very charming young men, both in manner and in character.”
Mom Rajawongse Satarn Klang then started his military career on May 5, 1886 as  recruit  number  1000 in the 3d company of the Royal Guard. After service as a recruit and guardsman he entered the officers school of the Danish Army.
After passing the exam as an officer he received the rank of second lieutenant in the 4th infantry regiment. Later he served with the different branches of the army: infantry, artillery, corps of engineers and the construction corps.

In the Royal Guard Regiment he was remembered for what he once said during a big  exercise with other branches of the army. He had seen a soldier bungle with his weapon and when the Prince later passed him he said to him: "If that had happened in Siam I  would have had you decapitated ".
Was he joking ? - or wasn't he ?

In the book "Den kgl. Livgarde", ("The Royal Guard") Prince Klang is mentioned:
“Prince Klang quickly adapted himself to the alien environment.  The military service as such was no problem for him and  his serving with the other recruits, who came from all walks of life, was a success  thanks to his straightforward manner and behaviour, his natural charm, quiet sense of humour and his sincere wish to be in every way a fellow soldier among fellow soldiers.”
(In the Royal Danish Guard all the guardsmen were and are national servicemen.)

Prins Klang was 14/12 1892 appointed Commander, 2d class, of the Order of Dannebrog and received permission to retire from service in the Danish Army on 21/12 1892.

After leaving the Danish Army Prince Klang went to Paris in January 1893 for further military schooling. However, later in 1893 he returned to Siam due to a French / Siamese political crisis.

In 1888 Prince Klang received a commission as second lieutenant in the army of Siam from King Chulalongkorn and in 1895 he was promoted to the rank of captain.
The next year he was in Europe with Prince Bhanurangsri.
With a new title and name: Mom Chat Dej Udom he became head of the Royal Cadet School in 1899.
I 1902 he headed a government delegation to  Japan.
I 1903 he became head of the General Staff of the armed forces of  Thailand.
I 1907 he was promoted to Lieutenant General, and the same year he was again in Europe heading the delegation to the Second Plan Conference in Haag.
He became Minister of Agriculture in 1909 and received the title of Phraya.
In 1911 he received another title and a new name: Chao Phraya Wongsa Nupraphat.
He was Minister of Traffic from 1912 to 1926 and again from 1932 to 1933.
In 1919 he was promoted to the rank of General.
Prince Klang died in Bangkok on October 20,  1940.

All through his life Prince Klang felt a strong bond with Denmark and the Royal Guard. He never forgot the Danish language which he spoke and wrote as a native.
When Lieutenant Colonel Honnens de Lichtenberg of the Royal Danish Guard in 1922 was received by the Minister of Traffic, General Chao Phraya Wongsa Nupraphat, during a trip to Bangkok, he was greeted in Danish: “Velkommen til Siam, kaere Oberstloejtnant”.  (Welcome to Siam my dear Lieutenant Colonel.) The Minister of Traffic was the former Mom Rajawongse Klang.

The Royal Guards Association was not founded until 1885, so Prince Klang has probably not heard much about the Association during his stay in Denmark, but in 1916 the editor of the monthly journal of the Guards Association was a man who had served as a recruit and guardsman with the Prince, the Prince joined the Guards Association, and by reading the "Garderbladet" he was able to follow developments in the Royal Guard and activities of his fellow recruits and guardsmen.

In 1923 Prince Klang was made an honorary member of the  Royal Guards Association, Copenhagen,  at the same time as two Danish princes, Prince Knud and Prince Aage.

As the years went by, he kept in touch by mail with the national servicemen with whom he served as a recruit and guardsman. At the 45th reunion in 1931 a letter from the Prince was read aloud - written in faultless Danish:
 

Prince Klang was a distant relative of  H. M. King Bhumibol, the present King of Thailand: The great-grandfather of Prince Klang was the King of Siam.
However, it is more interesting to note that Prince Klang is the grandfather of H. M. Queen Sirikit, as the daughter of Prince Klang,  Mom Luang Bua Sanitwongse/ (Snidvongs), is the mother of H. M. Queen Sirikit.
H.M. Queen Sirikit was actually born in the Bangkok residence of Prince Klang.

Peter Henrik Horsten, Copenhagen,  Denmark, November  2001.
Latest update: December 2013.
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Peter Henrik Horsten, February 2010.

	Prince Christian, (H. M. King Christian   10 of of Denmark 1912 - 1947) started   his military career as a recruit in the    Royal Guard  in 1889.     This photo shows the Prince as a   very tall recruit. He was 198 cm. tall,   the tallest in the recruit-company.
	Crown Prince Frederik served in the    Royal Guard as a recruit, guards-     man and sergeant from November    1986.

Sources:
Slægtsforskeren Johnny Boeg, Mosevej 19, 6760 Ribe.
Garderbladet,  aargang 1916 og 1931.
Aksel Pontoppidan: Den kongelige Livgarde. (1943.)
Ole A. Hedegaard: Et Hundredaarsminde. (1985.)
Tage Kaarsted. "Admiralen". Andreas de Richlieu. (1990.)
Aldo Eggers Lura. Admiralen, Kongen & Kaptajnen. (1998.)

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Revised May 2014..
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