Satun, or “Satoi” in Malayan meaning santol, was a sub district of Saiburi City at the beginning of the Rattanakosin period. In 1897, His Majesty King Rama V granted the title: Intendant Officer of the Saiburi Precinct to Phraya Saiburi Ram Pakdi Chao Phrya Saiburi (Abdul Hamid) and split Satun from Saiburi in accordance with the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909.
The Demarcation was made between the Federated Malaya States and Siam. This treaty also made Saiburi and Perlis England’s protectorates. Satun, on the contrary, became the fourth-ranked province under the Phuket Precinct of Thailand. In the British imperialism period, Phraya Phuminat Phakdi, the Governor of Satun, was brilliant in protecting Siam from the westerners who were infatuated with colonialism. He kept telling the seafarers living on Koh Tarutao, Adang-Rawi Archipelago, and Koh Lipe to answer that the islands belonged to Siam, if asked whom the islands belonged to.
The westerners would then leave for other places. Under the Governor’s competence, the other small provinces of that period enjoyed economic growth so much that Satun was named “Negeri Setoi Mumbang Segara” meaning Satun – the City of the Angel of the Sea. The Governor was consequently granted the respective titles of Luang Intarawichai, Phraya Intarawichai, and Maha Ammat Tri Phraya Phuminat Pakdi as his last position. He has been regarded as the first governor who was not a blue blood of any former Satun governor.
In 1932 Thailand converted its administration into a democratic system. Satun has thus been promoted to be a province in the Kingdom of Thailand ever since.