A Sketch of Siam's Gendarmerie
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3100400311 |
| Author | C. H. Forty |
| Date | 01 July 1931 |
| Published date | 01 July 1931 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
ASketch
of
Siam's Gendarmerie
By LT.-COL. C. H.
FORTY
Royal Siamese
Gendarmerie
IN
1862,
King Mongkut of Siam, grandfather of His
Majesty the present sovereign, commissioned an English-
man named Ames to raise Bangkok's first organized body of
police. This was several years before the London men in
blue discarded their top hats in favour of helmets. Judged
therefore by police standards the Siamese policemen possess
a pedigree with a reasonable claim to some antiquity. Before
the year mentioned Bangkok's nearest approach to police
officers consisted of a body of men clad in civilian clothing
who carried bundles of canes and whose functions in assisting
magistrates were somewhat akin to those of the Bow Street
Runners.
Captain S. J. Bird Ames was a Kentish man and had
commanded asailing-ship in the Mercantile Marine before the
attractions of Bangkok, in those days a comparatively unknown
city, induced him to give up the sea and seek his fortune ashore.
He is stated to have at first gone into business as a building
contractor, and a bridge crossing a canal near the present
Harbour Department still bears his name.
It
was of a vastly
different orderfrom the monumentalstructureMessrs. Dorman,
Long &Co. are
just
now throwing across the Menam river,
but
it
was a good bridge of its day, and may have served to bring
to the notice of authority the quality of the stranger it was
named after.
Ames was given the appointment of Superintendent of
Police. His commandat first consisted of Malays whom he had
himself recruited from the ranks of men who had served in the
army or police in Singapore. These were augmented, and in
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