STORY: Thailand's Queen Mother Sirikit has 'passed away peacefully' in a Bangkok hospital on Friday (October 24) night, the Thai Royal Household Bureau announced. She was 93.

The Queen Mother played an important part for decades in helping to revive the power and prestige of the monarchy alongside her husband the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Sirikit brought a touch of glamour as an internationally-feted fashion trend setter in the post-World War II decades and became a champion of rural development, but she also courted controversy with political statements in later years.

The mother of current King Maha Vajiralongkorn, Sirikit was also officially celebrated as a maternal figure for Thailand - with her birthday marked as Mother's Day.

Few photos of her have been published since the death of King Bhumibol in 2016 began a new chapter for the monarchy, which now faces its biggest challenge in decades with the rise of a protest movement calling for its powers to be curbed.

Born as Sirikit Kittiyakara in 1932, She could trace her own royal lineage to King Rama V, her husband's paternal grandfather, making them distant cousins.

The two met while Sirikit was studying music in Paris and after a period of courtship were engaged and married.

While they spent the first few years of their reign abroad in Switzerland, local challenges and the rise of communism prompted their return to Thailand in 1952.

Once back home, she travelled frequently into remote villages beside her husband to aid Thailand's rural poor and promoting development projects.

By the 1990s, the monarchy had gained enough esteem that short statements or symbolic support by Bhumibol and Sirikit were often enough to swing the tide of major political decisions.

Controversially, she became associated with a political movement, the royalist People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), whose protests from 2006 brought down governments led or allied to Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist former telecoms tycoon.

In 2008, she attended a funeral of a PAD protester killed in clashes with police, giving implicit royal backing to a street campaign to oust a pro-Thaksin government that fell at the end of the year, when courts disbanded the

ruling party and banned its leaders from politics.

After a stroke in July 2012, Queen Sirikit disappeared from public life. From 2014 till her death, she was treated in Bangkok hospitals.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

SHOWS: Thailand's Queen Sirikit brought global attention to her country as the fashionable wife of a young king before turning her hand to rural development and in later years courted controversy during a decade of political unrest.

In April 2005, revered-late King Bhumibol Adulyadej and then-Queen Sirikit attended a ceremony to inaugurate the statue of King Phra Phutthayotfa Chulalok, or King Rama I, the first King of the Chakri Dynasty.

BANGKOK, THAILAND (FILE - APRIL 2005) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS - Access all)

1. VARIOUS OF LATE-KING BHUMIBOL PAYING RESPECTS TO HIS ANCESTOR KING RAMA I, THE FIRST KING OF THE CHAKRI DYNASTY

2. STATUE OF KING RAMA I

3. LATE-KING BHUMIBOL AND THEN-QUEEN SIRIKIT PAYING HOMAGE

In 2006, Thailand celebrated King Bhumibol's 60-year anniversary on the throne. Hundreds of thousands of Thais wearing yellow shirts gathered at a Royal Plaza in Bangkok to get a glimpse of His and Her Majesty.

BANGKOK, THAILAND (FILE - JUNE 9, 2006) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (ROYAL HOUSEHOLD ARCHIVE - Access all)

4. CROWD GATHERED IN SQUARE FOR 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF KING BHUMIBOL'S REIGN

5. CROWD OUTSIDE PALACE WAVING FLAGS

6. KING BHUMIBOL AND QUEEN SIRIKIT ON PALACE BALCONY

Royalty and heads of state from 25 nations arrived at one of several grand palaces in the Thai capital to convey their best wishes to Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej on his Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

BANGKOK, THAILAND (FILE - JUNE 12, 2006) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (THAI TV POOL - Access all)

7. ROYAL FAMILY

8. KING BHUMIBOL AND QUEEN SIRIKIT

9. ROYAL FAMILY MEMBERS AND THEN-CROWN PRINCE VAJIRALONGKORN STANDING

King Bhumibol was accompanied by Queen Sirikit in a motorcade inspecting royal guards at an annual honour guard parade ahead of his 80th birthday.

BANGKOK, THAILAND (FILE - DECEMBER 2, 2007) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS - Access all)

10. VARIOUS OF QUEEN SIRIKIT IN CAR NEXT TO KING BHUMIBOL IN MOTORCADE INSPECTING GUARD OF HONOUR

11. QUEEN SIRIKIT GETTING OUT OF CAR

12. KING BHUMIBOL, QUEEN SIRIKIT AND CROWN PRINCE MAHA VAJIRALONGKORN GETTING ON PODIUM

BANGKOK, THAILAND (FILE - DECEMBER 2, 2007) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (TV POOL - No use Thailand)

13. QUEEN SIRIKIT STANDING NEXT TO KING BHUMIBOL AS HE SPEAKS

In October 2008, the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), so-called "yellow shirt" protesters, clashed with police when police fired tear gas to disperse protesters trying to stop Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat from going into parliament.

The group said Somchai was a puppet of ousted Thaksin Shinawatra, his brother-in-law. The clashes killed two people and injured dozens.

BANGKOK, THAILAND (FILE - OCTOBER 7, 2008) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS - Access all)

14. POLICEMAN LOADING TEAR GAS ROUND

15. TEAR GAS SPREADING AMONG PROTESTERS

16. (NIGHT SHOTS) VARIOUS OF TEAR GAS SPREADING, PROTESTERS RUNNING

On October 13, 2008, Queen Sirikit attended the funeral of an anti-government protester killed in clashes with police, the strongest sign yet of royal backing for the five-month street movement. The queen donated 1 million baht ($29,150) to help treat the injured, including the dozens of police officers hurt, although the People's Alliance of Democracy trumpeted the cash as a gesture of support from the palace, a very powerful moral and social force in Thailand.

BANGKOK, THAILAND (FILE - OCTOBER 13, 2008) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (TPBS - No use Thailand)

17. VARIOUS OF COFFIN NEXT TO PICTURE OF ANGKANA RADAPPANYAWUTHI, A DEMONSTRATOR KILLED IN PROTEST

18. QUEEN SIRIKIT WEARING BLACK ARRIVING AT TEMPLE

19. COFFIN

20. QUEEN SIRIKIT WALKING UP TO CREMATORIUM

21. MONKS PRAYING

22. VARIOUS OF QUEEN SIRIKIT ATTENDING FUNERAL

Thousands of anti-government protesters besieged the parliament in Bangkok in November 2008 as part of their "final battle" in a five-month street campaign to topple the government under Prime Minister Somchai. The protesters led by the PAD group also vowed to march on government offices and the stock exchange.

BANGKOK, THAILAND (FILE - NOVEMBER 24, 2008) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS - Access all)

23. VARIOUS OF ANTI-GOVERNMENT YELLOW SHIRT PROTESTERS MARCHING

24. PROTEST LEADER SONDHI LIMTHONGKUL SPEAKING

King Bhumibol made his first trip outside the capital after three years of ill health to inspect a water management project in Ayutthaya. He had been hospitalised since September 2009. King Bhumibol was accompanied by Queen Sirikit and Princess Mahajakri Siridhorn.

AYUTTHAYA, THAILAND (FILE - MAY 25, 2012) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (TPBS - No use Thailand)

25. PEOPLE WAVING NATIONAL FLAGS / KING'S FLAG

26. QUEEN SIRIKIT AND PRINCESS MAHAJAKRI SIRIDHORN WALKING

27. KING BHUMIBOL / QUEEN SIRIKIT AND PRINCESS SIRIDHORN SITTING

28. KING AND QUEEN IN CAR GOING BACK

King Bhumibol left hospital after spending seven months recuperating following surgery.

BANGKOK, THAILAND (FILE - MAY 10, 2015) (THAI TV POOL - No use Thailand)

29. EXTERIOR OF SIRIRAJ HOSPITAL

30. VEHICLE DRIVING OUT OF HOSPITAL WITH KING BHUMIBOL ADULYADEJ INSIDE

31. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WAVING FLAGS AND BOWING

32. VEHICLE LEAVING WITH QUEEN SIRIKIT (LEFT) INSIDE

33. CONVOY DRIVING PAST CROWD

The world's longest-reigning monarch died in a Bangkok hospital on October 13, 2016. The hearse of King Bhumibol made its way from the hospital on October 14, 2016, to the Grand Palace, as thousands of Thais stood on the roadside hoping to catch a last glimpse of their beloved monarch.

He had been in poor health for several years but his death nonetheless shocked the Southeast Asian nation of 67 million people and plunged it into grief.

BANGKOK, THAILAND (FILE - OCTOBER 14, 2016) (REUTERS - Access all)

34. CAR BELIEVED TO BE CARRYING KING BHUMIBOL'S BODY (GREY) MOVING TOWARDS GRAND PALACE / CAR CARRYING OTHER ROYAL FAMILY MEMBERS FOLLOWING BEHIND

35. WOMEN SITTING AND CRYING

A golden urn that had held the remains of dead kings was pulled from the Grand Palace in Bangkok's old quarters to the crematorium on a golden chariot on October 26, 2017. Senior members of the Thai royal family walked behind the urn, witnessed by tens of thousands of black-clad mourners bowing deeply along the pavement.

Mourners flocked to altars set up across the city to offer flowers made of sandalwood papers, in the belief that their fragrance guides the soul of the departed to heaven.

BANGKOK, THAILAND (FILE - OCTOBER 26, 2017) (REUTERS - Access all)

36. GUARDS CARRYING ROYAL URN ON CHARIOT TO ROYAL CREMATORIUM

37. SOLDIERS WALKING AND DRAGGING CHARIOT

38. ROYAL PROCESSION IN PROGRESS

39. THEN-CROWN PRINCE VAJIRALONGKORN STANDING AND LOOKING ON

40. ROYAL URN BEING PUT IN ROYAL CREMATORIUM / CURTAINS CLOSE

Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn attended religious ceremonies on Queen Mother Sirikit's 88th birthday on August 12, 2020. The king and other royal family members were also granted an audience with the Queen Mother at the Chulalongkorn Hospital where photographs were released by the Thai Royal Household Bureau on

the occasion of her birthday.

BANGKOK, THAILAND (FILE - AUGUST 12, 2020) (THAI ROYAL HOUSEHOLD BUREAU HANDOUT - No use Thailand) (MUTE)

41. STILL PHOTOGRAPH OF KING VAJIRALONGKORN WITH HIS SISTER, PRINCESS MAHA CHAKRI SIRINDHORN (LEFT), QUEEN MOTHER SIRIKIT, QUEEN SUTHIDA

42. VARIOUS OF STILL PHOTOGRAPHS OF KING HUGGING HIS MOTHER

43. STILL PHOTOGRAPH OF KING WITH PRINCE DIPANGKORN RASMIJOTI (LEFT) AND QUEEN MOTHER SIRIKIT

44. VARIOUS OF STILL PHOTOGRAPHS OF ROYAL FAMILY MEMBERS WITH QUEEN MOTHER SIRIKIT