Bertel Thorvaldsen (altered “Thorvaldsen” to a more Thai-sounding “Thorangkul”)worked as a colonel in the Thai Border Police under the Japanese occupation in World War II. Married a Thai woman and had eleven children. Family owned a large tobacco plantation on which they rode elephants, and even enjoyed some occasional tiger hunting. But the tone of their life changed when bombing raids began near their home, and eventually, Col. Thorangkul's sons would end up listening to underground radio and passing sensitive information along to Allied forces. (Once, they barely avoided tragedy as they arrived at a railroad station in the midst of a bombing raid.)
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From Unseen Chiang Rai Forum:

March 7, 2010 skybluestu said: Captain Thorvaldsen, he was a policeman and his relative was the famous Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. Not sure where the portrait is ..

Posted March 7, 2010
Limbo said:
Captain Thorwaldsen wasn't the only Dane policing here in the north at the beginning of last century.
Chiang Mai had Captain Jensen and Captain Trolle in charge of public order.
After defending Lampang succesfully together with his second in command Louis Leonowens (yes, Anna's son)
and his fellow Dane Halfdan Trolle, Markward Jensen chased a group of Shan back to the north but didn't come
further than Payao where three bullets effectively terminated his earthly sejour.
His body is buried in the Chiang Mai Foreign Cemetery, but just a couple of kilometers south of Payao on the verge of the 'superhighway' (coming from the north at your left) a little monument is erected to memorize his bravery.
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Limbo Posted May 29, 2010
Here in Chiang Rai Canadian Dr. Briggs seems to have played a very important, if not decisive role, during the rise of the Shan. The same Dr. Briggs that built the town hall, the prison, the hospital, the First Church, the first 'CWK'....The role of Captain Thorwaldsen (later Lt.Col.) is not clair. He was 25 in 1900, about the same age as Jensen.
After having fenced of the Shan invaders, the local Shan were seen as unreliable and had to move out of town.
They were allowed to relocate themselves far away from the city, yes, as far as Pa Korn, which now is considered to be close to the center (Pa Korn Market at the Pahonyothin not far from the Sperm Pub, where the new big plaza is being built).

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Interview with N.i N. M.lai (...........), an Old Policeman
This afternoon Mô Thawan took me to talk with N.i N. M.lai, a man of 86 who has been a policeman in Mae Sariang. He lives in a house on a little side road just before we reach the landing where one takes boats across the river.
Mr. N. was born in Ubon but has lived here for 57 years, i.e., since 1910. I asked him mainly of his remembrances of the government of Mae Sariang.
He said that prior to its incorporation into the Bangkok administrative system Mae Sariang was a müang under Chiang Mai and had a ruler known as phô luang (.......)
equivalent to the .ao müang of the northeast. This phô luang was a Khonmüang and not a Shan.
The name of the last phô luang was Phay. (Phy.) S.l. Sônmüang (...............). There are apparently descendants of this person still living here. In R.S. 119 (A.D. 1900) Mae Sariang was divided from Chiang Mai. The rulers were referred to as N.i Khw..ng (.......) which was equivalent to N.i Amphoe and Kh.luang bôriw.n (.............) who was equivalent to governor. The ruler of Mae Hong Son at the time was a Shan prince known as .aof. Mae Hong
Son (.................). In R.S. 121 (A.D. 1902) Mae Hong Son was made into West Chiang Mai Province with a Dane, , as the Kh.luang bôriw.n. This Thoransen was in the police
force and later moved to Chiang Rai.[He must have been my Cornell Thai teacher, Dana Thorangkul’s father or grandfather.]
--Charles F. Keyes Field Notebooks, Thailand
September 1 through September 30, 1967.