Katya & The Prince of Siam

Following the revolution, as the revenues of King Prajadhipok had been greatly reduced, the financial support hitherto enjoyed by Siamese princes abroad, including Bira, was discontinued. Consequently Chula now made himself financially responsible for Bira and, in fact, became his guardian. And when Bira left Eton aged eighteen, a private tutor was engaged to prepare him for entry into Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1934.

Bira was most engaging and talented, retaining for much of his life a childlike air of innocence and egoism – the more disarming because it was so natural. He was slender and well-built with an endearing way of seldom standing still but shifting rapidly from one foot to the other. Many of his most prized possessions were toys including a vast model railway in which he could remain absorbed for hours on end. He also had amazingly nimble fingers and, at one point, used to fashion exact replicas of different types of aircraft, tiny enough to fit into a matchbox.

During 1933, he and Chula moved into a flat in Kensington, and as Chula – unlike most of his royal relatives in whom it amounted almost to a passion – actually disliked shopping, Bira was entrusted with buying the furnishings. Unsurprisingly, his taste was in tune with the times: square deep armchairs, plenty of chromium-plate and sombre or neutral colours.

After much thought and long discussion, Bira eventually decided that an academic career was not for him, and abandoned the plan of going to Cambridge in favour of studying sculpture. After an initial trial period, he was accepted as a pupil by Charles Wheeler ARA and made excellent progress, later on exhibiting at the Royal Academy.

Meanwhile, Chula worked hard at his literary work, having two more biographies published in Siam but, although he and Bira led an active social life, going to many theatres and, above all, to performances of Russian Ballet given by de Basil’s famous company, neither of them neglected their mutual great interest in motor-cars and motor-racing and, in 1935, Bira ran in some short handicap races at Brooklands, driving a Riley Imp, painted hyacinth blue – Katya’s favourite colour – which soon became known as ‘Bira Blue’. The Riley was superseded by a super-charged MG Magnette, but after watching the performance of cars built by a small firm, English Racing Automobiles, which became widely known as ERA, Chula, considering their productions were the best of the light car class, purchased one for Bira and presented it to him on his twenty-first birthday.

Prince Bira and his teacher Charles Wheeler with the bust of Prince Chula.

 

By now Chula had decided to go in seriously for racing and to act himself as Bira’s manager. That the two of them, together with the first rate technicians they assembled, made a wonderful team is, of course, motor-racing history. When, in his first race in the new car at Dieppe on 20th July 1935 Bira came in second, Chula realised that the White Mouse team (so-called after Chula’s Thai nickname of mouse) could be a serious contender in light car racing.

Chula had clearly inherited, along with his father’s industry, his talent for organisation. This was obviously recognised by the Racing Correspondent of The Times, who wrote when Bira won the International Trophy at Brooklands in May 1939: ‘Bira’s success was as well-deserved as his frequent victories always are. As a driver he possesses all the essential virtues, skill, coolness, and sympathy with the mechanical functions of his car. But these in themselves would be unavailing if it were not for the thoroughness with which his cousin Prince Chula attends to every detail of the organisation. Bira’s cars are beautifully turned out. There is never a hint of last minute rush, and his pit control is what others would do well to copy.’

 

Prince Bira and Romulus in June 1936 after winning the Picardy Grand Prix.

 

 

Prince Bira in Hanuman winning the Campbell Trophy, April 1938.

 

In those last years before the Second World War, Bira competed in 68 long distance events, out of which he won 20 and achieved 14 seconds and 5 third places which, as Chula comments, ‘was a record any amateur driver could be proud of’.