Pridi Banomyong

Pridi Banomyong was a Thai lawyer, professor and statesman, born in Ayutthaya province in 1900, who became one of the nation's youngest barristers in 1919 at the age of nineteen. A royal scholarship took him to France, where he earned a master's degree at the University of Caen and a doctorate from the University of Paris in 1927. He co-founded Khana Ratsadon, played an important role in drafting two of the country's first constitutions after the 1932 revolution, and worked as a judge and professor. His contributions include modernizing Thai legal codes, and he helped found the University of Moral and Political Sciences and the Bank of Thailand. He held several ministerial posts, served as regent from 1941 to 1945 and was briefly prime minister in 1946.