Håkon Balstad

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.

Håkon Balstad
Governor of Svalbard
In office 1945–1956
Preceded by	Wolmar Tycho Marlow
Succeeded by	Odd Birketvedt
Personal details
Born	(1904-09-12)12 September 1904 Grue Municipality, Norway
Died	30 September 1964(1964-09-30) (aged 60) Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Profession	Civil servant

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]