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Queen Rambhai Barni was the daughter of H.R.H. Prince Svasti Vatanavisishta. and a granddaughter of King Mongkut. She was married to Prince Prajadhipok in 1918 and was created Queen on the day of King Prajadhipok's coronation. Queen Rambhai Barni accompanied her husband on a number of state visits abroad during his reign and was the first Thai queen to become well known in the West. She shared his exile in England and after his death in 1941 remained in that country. She returned to Thailand with her husband's ashes in 1949 and spent the rest of her life in her own country. She died on May 22, 1984, at the age of 79. Her cremation, which took place on April 8,1985, was an occasion of great ceremony, for she was cremated according to full royal rites within a specially constructed pavilion on the Phra Mane Ground in Bangkok--the first such cremation to have taken place in Thailand for 30 years.