Nomination of new US Ambassador to Norway announced

We didn't have to wait long for the announcement of the nomination of Barry B. White's successor as US Ambassador to Norway. The day after I wrote that Ambassador White was to leave for the States within the month, the White House named George James Tsunis of New York to the post as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USA to the Kingdom of Norway.

The American embassy in Oslo tells that the US Senate is to schedule a hearing of George Tsunis, before continuing the confirmation proceedings.

George Tsunis is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Chartwell Hotels, which owns, develops and manages Hilton, Marriott and Intercontinental hotels throughout the Northwest and Middle Atlantic states. He is also in charge of George Tsunis Real Estate, Inc., and used to be a partner in the law firm Rivkin Radler.

According to Newsday.com, Mr. Tsunis, 45 years old, of Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York, is a businessman who left the Republican party to become a major democratic fundraiser in the 2012 election. Jon Cooper, a former Suffolk County (Long Island) legislator, has said he was impressed with Tsunis' knowledge and expertise of foreign policy issues, while John Jay LaValle, the Suffolk Republican Chairman, has commented that Tsunis "[...] played his cards properly and is a well-liked guy."

In my blog article 3 days ago, I expressed my hope for a Norwegian-American Ambassador, but got a Greek-American instead! Nothing wrong with that, of course. His business background and short career as a Democrat supporter means that the Norwegian-Americans will have to contribute more in future elections to be considered for the post in Oslo! At least Tsunis has a small connection to Norway through his work at Chartwell Hotels, which among others manages the Hilton Hotels. The founder of the original Hilton Hotels company was the Norwegian-American Conrad Hilton (1887-1979), whose father Augustus Halvorsen Hilton came from the farm Hilton Søndre (Southern Hilton) in Kløfta, Norway.

I only hope that Mr. Tsunis will make most of his stay in Norway and that he will travel as much around the country as Ambassador White has and will learn to know the country well.

New age record at the Royal Palace in Oslo?

On Friday 13 September 2013 King Harald V will grant the 106 years old Carl Falck, who is Norway's oldest man, an audience at the Royal Palace. He is most likely the oldest person who has ever been granted an audience at the Palace. If anyone knows about any older, I would love to hear about it!

The king and the members of the royal family, not to mention the deceased members of the present dynasty, have surely met older persons before, but only at nursing homes and other places, not at the Palace. This is of course not something I am keeping a record of, but I can well remember that Princess Märtha Louise met the then 107 years old Borghild Marie Nilsen at a local nursing home in connection with the celebrations of Tjølling Church' 850th anniversary in 2000. Borghild Nilsen died in 2004, 110 years old.

Carl Falck, who graduated in law from the University of Oslo in 1931 and was later among others managing director of the Norwegian Wholesalers' Association, was born in Tønsberg on 27 May 1907. (Source: Hvem er Hvem? 1955.)

You can read and/or watch interviews with Carl Falck at TB.no (14 June 2012), Dagbladet.no (24 August 2012), Dagsavisen.no (10 january 2013), Aftenposten.no (13 April 2013) and NRK.no (13 June 2013).

Carl Falck is today Norway's oldest man, while Elisabet Julie Ekenæs, b. 26 December 1904, is the oldest woman.

Postscript 13 September 2013 at 20:40: See the photo of Carl Falck taken outside the Royal Palace today at the Royal Court's official Facebook page.

Updated on Friday 13 September 2013 at 20:40 (postscript added), last time on Wednesday 31 May 2017 at 00.37 (link corrected).

US Ambassador to Norway goes home

King Harald of Norway will grant the US Ambassador to Norway, Barry B. White, a farewell audience on Monday 16 September 2013, the list of official engagements at the Royal Court's website reveals. Mr. White is to leave his post within a month, the US Embassy in Oslo has informed me via its Twitter account. No successor has yet been named. The normal procedure is that the Deputy Chief of Mission, will be in charge until the new ambassador is in place. The person who holds the position at the moment is Julie Furuta-Toy.

Ambassador White was confirmed by the US Senate on 22 September and sworn in on 21 October 2009, before being formally accredited Ambassador to Norway in November 2009. He has travelled a lot in Norway during his years here and seems to have been well received everywhere. I had a short chat with him at the election gala at the Grand Hotel in Oslo last year. Of course at that time he had no idea what the future had in store for him. It will be exciting to see who President Obama will nominate. I think it would be rather nice to have a Norwegian-American Ambassador, at least because it would give me an opportunity to trace his or her roots!

Three weddings and a pregnancy

I haven't been able to update my blog lately, so here is a short summary of recent wedding and pregnancy news:

• Prince Muhammad Ali of Egypt married Princess Noal Zaher Shah of Afghanistan at the Çirağan Palace in Istanbul, Turkey on Friday 30 August 2013. Prince Muhammad Ali, b. 1979, is the son of the former King Fuad II of Egypt and his former wife Fadila, née Dominique-France Loeb, while Princess Noal, b. 1978, is the only daughter of Prince Muhammad Daud Pashtunyar Khan of Afghanistan and his wife, Princess Fatima Begum. The bride's father is the fifth son of the late and last king of Afghanistan, Muhammad Zahir Shah (1914-1933-1973-2007). For photos, go here and here (the latter is King Fuad II's official Facebook page).
• Andrea Casiraghi and Tatiana Santo Domingo Rechulski were married at the Princely Palace, Monaco on 31 August 2013. Andrea, b. 1984, is the eldest son of HRH The Princess of Hannover (Princess Caroline of Monaco) and the late Stefano Casiraghi, while Tatiana, b. 1983, is the daughter of Julio Mario Santo Domingo and  Vera Rechulski from Colombia and Brazil respectively. Andrea and Tatiana became parents to Sacha Casiraghi on 21 March 2013 in London. Upon marriage Sacha entered the line of succession to the Monegasque throne due to the rather liberal succession law. See Huffington Post and the Telegraph for photos and more information.
• Gustaf Magnuson and Vicky Andrén were married at Ulriksdal Palace Chapel on 31 August 2013. Gustaf, b. 1975, whose full name is Carl Gustaf Victor Magnuson, is the eldest son of Princess Christina of Sweden and Tord Magnuson and thus a nephew of King Carl XVI Gustaf. Vicky Elisabeth Andrén, whose parents are Elisabeth Malm and Kenneth Andrén, is born in 1983. Among the many guests were King Carl Gustaf, Queen Silvia, Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Daniel, Prince Carl Philip, his girlfriend Sofia Hellqvist as well as Queen Sonja of Norway, who is one of Gustaf's sponsors. See photos at Expressen and Svensk Damtidning.
• The Royal Court of Sweden announced on 3 September 2013 that Princess Madeleine and her husband Chris O'Neill are expecting their first child in early March 2014: "Princess Madeleine and Mr. Christopher O'Neill are delighted to announce that The Princess is expecting their first child. The birth is expected to take place in beginning of March of 2014. No changes to the schedule of The Princess's engagements and work for Childhood are planned during the fall of 2013." (See also Expressen.se.) Princess Madeleine and Chris O'Neill were married at Stockholm Palacce Church on 8 June 2013. As of now the couple lives in New York City, and as far as I know the court has not revealed if the couple plans to move to Sweden before the birth. This could be interesting constitutionally speaking, as the Swedish Act of Succession Article 4 says among others that "princes and princesses of the Royal House shall be brought up [...] within the Realm". However, the poorly formulated article doesn't say anything about what consequence it would have if a prince or princess is brought up outside the realm. Then again, one might ask if the text should be taken literally. Will non-titled children be affected? Personally I would be surprised if the future child becomes a Prince of Princess, but surely we will get more information from the court on this in due time. The preparatory works to the changes to the succession law in 1979 (Prop. 1977/78 no. 71) mentions the possibility of conditional consent to marriage, but I haven't heard anything about such a clause in the marital agreement.

Crown Prince Haakon at Rolv Wesenlund's funeral service

The funeral service for the actor, comedian and TV program host Rolv Helge Wesenlund, who died on 18 August 2013, 76 years old, took place at Frogner Church in Oslo today. Crown Prince Haakon as well as Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg attended the service.

Photos from the service can be viewed on VG.no. Wesenlund was born in Horten, Vestfold county, and the urn will be interred there after the cremation.

Eurohistory - The European Royal History Journal, Vol. 16.3, June 2013

The latest issue of  Eurohistory - The European Royal History Journal (Vol. 16.3, June 2013) arrived in my mail box yesterday. So far I haven't read more than about 1/5 of the magazine, so this article should be regarded as a presentation of the issue and rather than a review.

The front page shows an official portrait taken of the new King and Queen of the Netherlands in connection with King Willem-Alexander's accession on 30 April this year. Nearly four months has passed since then, so I wonder if it would be better to restrict the magazine more to history articles rather than articles on (more or less) contempary events and then leave the news stories to the magazine's blog and Facebook page. But on the other hand, Arnout van Cruyningen in his article Continuity and Rejuvenation, Tradition and Modernity: The Accession of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands provides an excellent record of all the major events on the accession day, including the speeches given by Queen Beatrix (29 April), King Willem-Alexander and the chairman of the national assembly as well as the abdication document itself.

In the Royal Books Reviews section Coryne Hall covers Eurohistory's recent publication Russia and Europe. Dynastic Ties by Galina Korneva & Tatiana Cheboksarova. The book is published in association with Liki Rossii, St. Petersburg, has 318 pages and includes over 600 illustrations. The new edition has been expanded and edited by Arturo E. Beéche. According to the reviewer the main focus of the new edition is the 100 extra photos. A description of the original edition can be found at the Royal Russia website.

I enjoyed reading Coryne Hall's article about Prince Vsevelod Ioannovich of Russia (part 1) in the second issue of vol. 16, and hopefully the second part of the article will be just as good.

Another returning contributor is Ilana D. Miller, who this time has delivered the article Who's in the Picture. The Baptism of Norton Knatchbull 18 November 1947. Norton Knatchbull, the 8th Baron Brabourne and the 17th Baronet, is the eldest child of Lady Patricia Mountbatten, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma and John Knatchbull, 7th Baron Brabourne. The Countess Mountbatten of Burma was the eldest daughter of the Earl Mountbatten of Burma, born Prince Louis of Battenberg.

I touched upon the subject of "old news stories" above, but obituaries are in my opinion more timeless, and the present issue offers obituaries of  Landgrave Moritz of Hesse (1926-2013) (by Marlene Eilers-Koenig), Princess Benita of Schaumburg-Lippe (1927-2013), née Baroness Eva-Benita von Tiele-Winkler, and Princess Editha of Bavaria (1924-2013), the oldest surviving daughter of Crown Prince Rupprecht and Crown Princess Antonia, the latter two written by the publisher, Arturo E. Beéche.

Finally we get royal news from Bavaria, Brazil, Denmark, Hesse, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Schaumburg-Lippe, Serbia, Sweden, Hohenlohe-Bartenstein, Salm-Reifferscheidt-Krautheim and Dyck (!) and Solms-Braunfels.

The publisher of The Europan Royal History Royal can be reached at erhj [at] eurohistory.com.

For earlier articles on the magazine, go here.

Sandefjord Cemetery, Norway, Part III

I often walk through Sandefjord Cemetery when I return to my parents' home after a trip to "downtown" Sandefjord. During one of my walks in mid July this year, I discovered the grave of my great-aunt Ingrid Hanssen, née Hoelseth, who died in March 2013. I was not able to attend her funeral and had no idea where she had been interred.

Aunt Ingrid, who was the last sibling of my grandfather Arne Hoelseth to pass away, is buried together with her parents-in-law, chief cashier Harris Hanssen and Kristine Hanssen, née Hasle. The latter's parents, Anders B. Hasle and Klara Hasle, née Christensen, are also buried at Sandefjord cemetery, but at the other side of the chapel. For a photo of their grave, go here (photo no. 11 from the top). Klara, who was listed as Clara in the church book (no. 117), was the daughter of shipmaster Christen Christensen and Oline Christensen, née Olsdatter (not the same Christensen family as mentioned in my Sandar Church and Cemetery article, though).

See also

• Sandefjord Church and Cemetery, Norway (9 June 2010)
• Sandefjord Cemetery, Norway, Part II (7 March 2011)