Friday, April 10, 2009

Governor list of Chumphon

The list of governor of Chumphon has some interesting inconsistencies, which are worth noting here as the reason for them can create confusion at other places as well.

First the part where everything is fine, but only if one known about the Thai calendar.
ลำดับที่ชื่อ - สกุลระยะเวลาดำรงตำแหน่ง
4พระยาสุราฤทธิ์ภักดี 1 เมษายน 2449 - 30 มิถุนายน 2451
5พระยาสำเริงนฤปการ1 มกราคม 2451 - 30 มิถุนายน 2452
6พระยาวิเศษชัยชาญ1 มกราคม 2452 - 30 มิถุนายน 2455

Governor number 5 started his term on 1st January
2451, while his predecessor ended his term on June 30 2451. But this does not mean that there were two governors in office for the first six months of 2451 (1908), because until 2484 (1941) the new year was on April 1, and January to March 2541 were in fact in 1909 already. So instead of six month overlapping terms this means half year without governor. Quite possible, especially as the same happened with the
next governor.

ลำดับที่ชื่อ - สกุลระยะเวลาดำรงตำแหน่ง
10พระยาพิพิธลำพลวิมลภักดี31 ตุลาคม 2464 - 31 มกราคม 2471
11พระยาสัจจาภิรมย์อุดมราชภักดี1 พฤษภาคม 2471 - 31 มกราคม 2473
12พระระนองธานี1 มิถุนายน 2473 - 31 พฤศจิกายน 2476
13พระราชญาติรักษา30 มีนาคม 2475 - พฤศจิกายน 2476
14พระยาอมรฤทธิ์ธำรง1 มีนาคม 2476 - 9 กันยายน 2478

But now governor number 10 ended his term on 31 January
2471 (i.e. January 1929), and next governor started 1 May 2471 (i.e.
May 1928), which meant there would be an overlap of nearly one year.
So here (and also for number 11 and 13) the year start in April was
forgotten? For number 14 however 1 March 2476 is correct again, as
this was after November 2476.

I have no idea if it was possible to have two incumbents at the same time back then, but it seems rather unlikely to me, so I presume that for some of the entries the year number must be wrong due to forgetting to take the April 1st new year date into account. I don't know how many of the Thai are aware of this change nearly seventy years ago. Thus every date before 1941 in the months January to March must be taken with care, either a mistake was done when compiling the list in Thai dates, or more likely when transferring it to western dates.

Needless to say I contacted the email address on that webpage, and got no response at all.

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