Rabi Badhanasakdi (รพีพัฒนศักดิ์)

Thai. Name of the fifth son and 13th child of King Chulalongkorn, whom he begot with his concubine Talap Ketudat (ตลับ เกตุทัต), and who bore the royal title Prince of Ratchaburi. Despite the official transliteration given above, his name is actually pronounced (and might be spelled) Raphi Phathanasak. When his father, King Rama V, reformed the existing system of Court and Law to the new system of Court of Justice, the prince is accredited for founding the School of Law and initiating significant reform, in order to regulate and standardize the Siamese system of Court and Law to reach international standards akin to the European countries of his time. For this he was given the designation Father of Thai Law. He was born in Bangkok on 21 October 1874 and passed away in France on 7 August 1920 at the age of 45. After being diagnosed with prostate cancer, the prince had travelled abroad in order to receive treatment, but while being treated abroad he died from kidney failure, complications that arose from his cancer. His body was cremated in France and his ashes were later collected by his grandson Khai Saeng Raphi Raphiphat (ไขแสงรพี รพีพัฒน์) and brought back to Siam, arriving in Bangkok on 1 December 1920. The Prince, wearing a judicial toga, appears on a Thai postage stamp issued in 1992, in order to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Ministry of Justice, which was established as a direct result of both his father's and his own reforms of the judicial system (fig.). 回