Håkon Balstad
Håkon Balstad | |
|---|---|
| Governor of Svalbard | |
| In office 1945–1956 | |
| Preceded by | Wolmar Tycho Marlow |
| Succeeded by | Odd Birketvedt |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 12 September 1904 Grue Municipality, Norway |
| Died | 30 September 1964 (aged 60) Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain |
| Profession | Civil servant |
Hans Håkon Balstad (12 September 1904 – 30 September 1964) was a Norwegian civil servant who served as the Governor of Svalbard from 1945 to 1956. He was the longest-serving person in the position.
Biography
Balstad was born on 12 September 1904 in Grue Municipality in Norway.[1] His father, Stein Balstad, was an author.[2] He finished a law degree in 1928 and then worked as an assistant for a judge for one year.[3] He was a clerk for the Ministry of Church Affairs in 1929 and rose to the position of assistant secretary in 1934.[3] He also was the secretary of the Norwegian Writers' Association from 1930 to 1940.[3] During World War II, he held a high position in the Ministry of Trade, after fleeing the German conquest and evacuating with the rest of the government on 7 June 1940 to London.[3]
After the war, Balstad was appointed towards the end of 1945 to be the first post-war Governor of Svalbard (Sysselmann), a remote archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.[4] He moved there soon after with his fiancée and future wife, Liv Balstad, who subsequently wrote a popular account of her life in Svalbard, titled Nord for det øde hav (North of the desolate sea).[5] Due to Svalbard's small population (which was a few hundred when he was named Governor), in addition to Governor, Balstad also served as notary public, police chief, judge, and county commissioner.[3][4]
Most of the buildings in Svalbard had been destroyed by the Germans during the war, with only "three or four" houses remaining, according to Governor Balstad's wife. As a result, the primary focus of his early years as governor was reconstruction.[5] Among the destroyed buildings was the governor's residence, forcing Balstad and his wife to live for several years in a "dilapidated ... Swedish barracks, with rats under the floorboards and derelict furniture, which housed all government services as well," according to the book Transit 'Norden' och 'Europa'.[5] Attempts to get assistance from the Norwegian government were unsuccessful, and thus he hired a private architect to build a new governor's residence, which was completed in 1950 in Longyearbyen.[5]
Balstad was described as "respected and popular among the population of Svalbard".[3] Frank Illingworth in Country Life called him a "roaring bull of a man with a fabulous capacity for raw liquor",[6] while an article in The Contemporary Review noted him to be "barrel-chested, with a bellowing voice and a pet husky".[7] The newspaper Nordlys described him as "a very pleasant and sociable man who had won many friends both abroad and at home".[2]
Balstad ending up serving 11 years as Governor of Svalbard, having the longest service in the position before being succeeded by Odd Birketvedt and returning to Norway.[8][9] After he returned, he became a judge for the Kristiansand District Court.[2] In his last years, he was very ill and he died on 30 September 1964, at the age of 60, while on a trip to Tenerife in the Canary Islands.[2]
References
- ^ "Balstad" – via Ancestry.com.
- ^ a b c d "Håkon Balstad død" [Håkon Balstad dead]. Nordlys (in Norwegian). 1 October 1964 – via National Library of Norway.
- ^ a b c d e f "50 år" [50 years]. Tromsø (in Norwegian). 11 September 1954. p. 12 – via National Library of Norway.
- ^ a b "Syssel-mannen på Svalbard" [The Sysselmann in Svalbard]. Fjell-Ljom (in Norwegian). 26 October 1945 – via National Library of Norway.
- ^ a b c International Association for Scandinavian Studies (30 April 2019). Transit 'Norden' och 'Europa'. Barkhuis. pp. 78, 93–95. ISBN 9789492444851.
- ^ Illingworth, Frank (1951). Wild Life Beyond the North. Country Life. p. 27.
- ^ "Unknown title". The Contemporary Review. 1950. p. 109.
- ^ "Former Governors". Governor of Svalbard. Archived from the original on 29 May 2024. Retrieved 21 December 2024.
- ^ "Behagelig overraskende å håndheve lov og orden" [Pleasantly surprised to enforce law and order]. Harstad Tidende (in Norwegian). pp. 1, 6 – via National Library of Norway.