From the Chulalongkorn period onwards, members of the Thai royal family liked to ship their children off to be educated in the West. The goals were determinedly to catch up with Western modernity and to flaunt their own civilised veneer in front of their Western counterparts.
King Vajiravudh and King Prajadhipok were sent to Eton College in England. Prajadhipok also graduated from the Woolwich Military Academy and thus became familiar with British society. This could have explained why he chose to retire in Surrey after his abdication in 1935.