Gen Prem Tinsulanonda, the Privy Council chairman and statesman, died of heart failure at Phramongkutklao Hospital on Sunday morning at the age of 98, according to media reports.
He was rushed to the hospital by military officers from his Sisao Thewes home at 5am for emergency treatment. He was pronounced dead at 9.09am, reports said.
Gen Prem was a kind of father figure, closely linked to the military and monarchy, a trusted advisor to the late King Bhumipol and a symbol of Thailand's hybrid system of "guided democracy" -- sometimes dubbed "Premocracy". He was born in 1920 in Songkhla province.
He was given the name "Prem" by revered monk Phra Rattanathatmuni (Baen Khanathaporano). The surname "Tinsulanonda" was bestowed on the family by King Rama VI on June 14, 1919.
In his childhood, Gen Prem graduated from Maha Vajiravudh Secondary School in Songkha, followed by Suan Kularb Wittaya School in Bangkok where he graduated in 1937.
He continued his education at an army technical school before joining the army, and went on to take part in the Indochina War and Second World War.
In 1952, he was awarded a scholarship to study in the United States at a cavalry school in Fort Knox, Kentucky. On his return, he became deputy commander of a cavalry school in Saraburi province, which later became the Cavalry Centre.
He was given the rank of major general and appointed commander of the Cavalry Centre in 1968. He was made deputy commander of the 2nd Army overseeing the Northeast region in 1973, promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and appointed commander of the 2nd Army in 1974.
He became an assistant army commmander in 1977, holding the rank of general, and was appointed commander-in-chief of the army in 1978.
He then entered politics and was appointed deputy interior minister and defence minister before becoming the 16th prime minister, the position he held between 1980-1988.
He was appointed a member of the Privy Council on Aug 23, 1988 and became Privy Council chairman on Sept 4, 1998.
