Gunnar Knudsen, born Aanon Gunerius Knudsen, was a Norwegian politician from the Liberal Party who had two spells as Prime Minister of Norway from 1908 to 1910 and from 1913 to 1920.
Background
Knudsen was born in 1848 at the medium-sized farm Saltrød in Stokken, now part of Arendal at the South coast of Norway. His father Christen Knudsen was a sea captain and ship-owner, whose ancestors had lived at the farm for several generations. His mother Guro Aadnesdatter had grown up at one of the smaller farms in Saltrød which her father which hailed from Vegusdal has bought.
Career
He also owned a number of shipping companies, and created the Borgestad corporation. Christen Knudsen established a shipyard in Arendal in 1851, but in 1855 he and the family moved to Frednes in Porsgrunn. A brother of Gunnar died in 1855, his two living siblings were Jørgen Christian Knudsen (born 1843) and Ellen Serine (born 1846) who married Johan Jeremiassen.
He started studying at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1865 where he got a degree as engineer in 1867.
Returning to Norway, he started working at Aker"s Mechanical Workshop and then went to England where he studied ship building technics at Piles Shipyard in Sunderland. The first ship he designed for the family"s shipyard was Gambetta, named after the French politician Léon Gambetta.
lieutenant was launched in 1871. The stay in England convinced Knudsen that the days of sail ships would soon be over and that the family business neeeded to start building steam ships in the future.
In the period until 1879, Knudsen designed five ships for the company.
He named the fifth Crossroad. lieutenant was the last sail ship he designed. In social policy, Knudsen"s time as prime minister saw the passage of the Sickness insurance Law of September 1909 provided compulsory coverage for employees and workers below a certain income limit, representing approximately 45% of all wage earners.
That same year, the state approved free midwife services for unmarried mothers.
In 1915, free midwife services were extended to the wives of men included under the national health insurance scheme.