Padej Kumlertsakul

Role: Author

Records Advisor – Overseas & Defence

About

Padej Kumlertsakul is a historian of Southeast Asian conflicts and empire. His work explores how warfare, imperial governance and local agency shaped the modern history of mainland and maritime Southeast Asia. He has worked extensively with the records of the War Office, Admiralty, Colonial Office, and Allied intelligence organisations, supporting researchers engaging with naval, intelligence and colonial collections.

His research examines Thailand’s role in regional conflict, from resistance movements and clandestine operations to the negotiation of sovereignty during the Second World War and early Cold War. Padej is also interested in Royal Navy scientific expeditions and the development of maritime science, particularly the ways hydrography, cartography and natural history shaped British engagement with the wider world.

Padej’s interests are informed by an interdisciplinary academic background. He trained in historical research at the Institute of Historical Research (University of London), where his postgraduate work explored the Royal Navy’s scientific role in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. His earlier study in geology at Birkbeck (University of London) provides additional context for understanding environmental and scientific dimensions within imperial and maritime history.

He contributes to the Southeast Asia Curators’ Group, working collaboratively with colleagues across the British Library, Victoria & Albert Museum, British Museum and SOAS.

Research activity

Research interests

Conflicts and empire in Southeast Asia
Intelligence history (SOE, OSS, clandestine operations)
Resistance movements and local agency
Royal Navy scientific expeditions and imperial knowledge-making
Colonial governance and state formation
Hydrography, cartography and maritime power

Teaching and engagement

Padej delivers specialist training across The National Archives, including sessions on Royal Marines records and researching naval correspondence using ADM 12 records. He contributes to postgraduate archival training through the PAST workshops, supporting academic researchers working with naval, intelligence, and colonial collections.

He has also:

Delivered a special lecture titled 'The Legacy of Imperialism as a Global Heritage: The Management and Distribution of vital historical documents for Thailand and other regions at The National Archives.' At Faculty of Liberal Arts Thammasat University in 2022
Acted as a guest speaker for Department of Library Science. Faculty of Letters, Chulalongkorn University in 2021.
Delivered a lecture on ‘Online Database of The National Archive: an introduction to the Southeast Asian Archives collections’ at Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology Thammasat University in 2021
Been a guest lecturer for 'Explore the History of Asia in the National Archives, UK: Challenges and Surprises of the Primary Sources' at the Department of History, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) in 2019.

Selected Publications and Papers

Science at Sea: Maritime Knowledge and Cross-Cultural Exchange from Kämpfer to the Royal Navy, IV Simpósio Internacional de História do Oriente, forthcoming 2026 — paper accepted for publication
Echoes of the Great War: A Look at the Lives of the Chinese Labourers Who Returned from the European Front, Malaysian Journal of Chinese Studies, 13:2 (2024), co‑authored with Dr Olga V. Alexeeva
First World War: Past, Present, and Future at Edinburgh Napier University, 2019 co‑presented with Dr Olga V. Alexeeva on the Qingdao campaign and Allied interests in China
New York Conference on Asian Studies (SUNY New Paltz, 2019) — co‑presented on Chinese builders of the Russian Arctic Railway
Masters of Their Own Destiny (Chulalongkorn University, 2018) — Chinese Labour Corps on the Western Front
Voices of the Home Fronts (The National Archives, 2018) — The First World War in the Far East
ASEASUK Conference (SOAS, 2016) — Thailand’s military role in foreign policy from the First World War to the Cold War

Professional Associations

Padej is a member of the Southeast Asia Curators’ Group

Articles

Focus on

Britain's role in The Front Palace Crisis

Discover how a ship's surgeon unknowingly recorded a critical event that reshaped Siam’s government forever.
Focus on

Forgotten front: Britain, Bolshevism, and Chinese auxiliaries in northern Russia

At the end of the First World War, the British Army enlisted the service of Chinese labourers working in the Arctic.
Focus on

The East River Column: The rebels who helped Second World War prisoners of war

Discover how this guerrilla group played a significant role in opposing Japan and aiding Allied prisoners of war around Hong Kong.