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The dictionaries were the tip of the iceberg in his lifelong devotion to education and the advancement of knowledge. In 1940, while working at the Ministry of Education, he founded the Teachers' Training College, giving special emphasis to provincial and female teachers. He also established La-or Uthis, the country's first experimental kindergarten, as well as a number of other pioneering educational programmes. Concurrently he wrote text books for teaching English and developed a special programme for pre-school children. The Teachers' Training College eventually became Rajabhat University.

Later, M.L. Manich bought a plot of land on Soi Prasanmitr and helped M.L. Pin Malakul to establish Sri Nakarindraviroj University. Another learned institution associated with M.L. Manich is the Royal Institute, which at one point nearly went into oblivion but which he managed to have revived.

From 1950 M.L. Manich worked at the Unesco headquarters in Paris and was in charge of educational programmes for developing countries. The highlight was the Laos script - which is closely related to Thai - which he had type-cast, for the first time, especially for a printing press in Vientiane.

From that period in Paris, he started to research 17th to 19th-century documents and rare books on Siam. His research was conducted in libraries in Paris, London and other Europea cities, and he became the first historian to popularise the historical links between Siam and the West. This research led him to build up possibly the biggest collection of 17th-century European books, old maps and manuscripts on Siam, including the first book printed in Bangkok in 1789, during the reign of King Rama I.

As part of his programme to promote book publication and reading, he initiated, in 1972, the first book fair in Bangkok, which consisted of rickety book stands in makeshift tents on the roadside. Today the annual Book Fair has become one of the biggest events in the country.

Born in 1908 to a family of limited means, M.L. Manich won the coveted King's Scholarship in 1925 to study in England, where he took degrees in Modern Languages and Education at Trinity College, Cambridge.

He was decorated as Commander of the British Empire (CBE), Chevalier de l'Ordre de Merite, and awarded the German Grosses Verdienstorden ("Great Order of Merit").

M.L. Manich succumbed to heart failure last Saturday, not long after celebrating his 100th birthday in October. He is survived by three children, Dr Sumet, Dr Art-ong and Dr Parichart Jumsai na Ayudhya.

Funeral rites will be held at Wat Thatthong until Saturday.