Einar Sverdrup was a Norwegian mining engineer and businessman.
Background
He was born in Solund as the son of Edvard Sverdrup and his wife Agnes, née Vollan. His father was stationed in Solund as a vicar. Einar Sverdrup was the grandson of vicar and politician Harald Ulrik Sverdrup, a grandnephew of Johan Sverdrup, a nephew of politician Jakob Sverdrup and theologian Georg Sverdrup, a half-brother of oceanographer Harald Ulrik Sverdrup, Junior., and a brother of engineer and military officer Leif Sverdrup and women"s rights activist Mimi Sverdrup Lunden.
Education
Norwegian Institute of Technology.
Career
He was the Chief Executive Officer of the Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani, operating at Svalbard. When the integrity of Svalbard was threatened during, he volunteered for a military operation, but was killed in action during Operation Fritham. On the maternal side he was a grandson of Ole Vollan, and a first cousin of Harald and Nordahl Grieg.
Einar studied to be a mining engineer in the United States and at the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondhjem.
The couple had three children, and settled in Bærum. eventually became the Chief Executive Officer of the Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani, a Norwegian coal mining company based in Svalbard. Before Operation Barbarossa was executed on 22 June 1941, the Svalbard archipelago was treated as a "no man"s land".
The mining was conducted and controlled by Norwegians and Soviets, but the authorities allowed coal transport to German-occupied Northern Norway. After Operation Barbarossa, however, the attitude changed, and Svalbard was evacuated between July and August 1941.
In September 1941, Einar travelled to England.
Here, he became involved in a plan to retake Svalbard. He was soon singled out as leader of the operation, and was ranked Lieutenant Colonel. The operation was codenamed Operation Fritham.
lieutenant started on 30 April 1942, when the ships Mississippi Selis and Steamship Isbjørn departed from Greenock. was on board Steamship Isbjørn.
The expedition reached Svalbard, but on 13 May, Isbjørn was sunk by German aircraft at Grønfjorden, claiming the life of. In Svalbard, near the town of Longyearbyen is a place named for him: byen (" Town").
Nearby, the settlement of Nybyen is sometimes alternatively known as Østre byen ("East byen"). There is also a memorial near byen.
The stone obelisk has a metal plaque with the following engraving: which translates to