Bo Boustedt

Lieutenant General Bo Ivar Boustedt (22 August 1868 – 24 October 1939) was a Swedish Army officer. Boustedt's senior commands include regimental commander of Västernorrland Regiment and Uppland Infantry Regiment, chief of the Military Office of the Land Defence, commanding officer of the Eastern Army Division, Commandant General of Stockholm Garrison and chief of the General Staff.

Bo Boustedt
Birth name	Bo Ivar Boustedt
Born	28 August 1868 Fuxerna, Sweden
Died	24 October 1939 (aged 71) Stockholm, Sweden
Allegiance	Sweden
Service/branch	Swedish Army
Years of service	1891–1933
Rank	Lieutenant General
Commands held	Västernorrland Regiment Uppland Infantry Regiment Military Office of the Land Defence Eastern Army Division Commandant General of Stockholm's Garrison General Staff

Career

Boustedt (right) and head of the Operations Department, Lieutenant Colonel Axel Rappe.

Boustedt was born on 22 August 1868 in Fuxerna Parish, Älvsborg County, Sweden, to captain Axel Boustedt and his wife Amanda Bergius. Boustedt was commissioned as an officer in Bohuslän Regiment in 1891 with the rank of underlöjtnant. He was then teacher at Billströmska folkhögskolan in Tjörn from 1892 to 1898. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1895 and served as lieutenant of the General Staff in 1903 and as captain there in 1904. Boustedt served as teacher at the Swedish Infantry Gunnery School in 1904, and as teacher at the Royal Swedish Army Staff College from 1904 to 1911. Boustedt served as captain in Älvsborg Regiment in 1910 and was promoted to major and appointed head of the Communications Department of the General Staff in 1912. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel there in 1915 and then served in Västernorrland Regiment in 1916.[1]

Boustedt was promoted to colonel in the army in 1917 and was appointed regimental commander of Västernorrland Regiment in 1918. Five years later, Boustedt was appointed regimental commander of Uppland Infantry Regiment. He was at the same time commander of the 9th Infantry Brigade. In 1926, Boustedt was appointed chief of the Military Office of the Land Defence two years later, in 1928, he was promoted to major general and appointed brigade commander in the Western Army Division (Västra arméfördelningen). Boustedt then served as commanding officer of the Eastern Army Division (Östra arméfördelningen) and as Commandant General of Stockholm Garrison for a year before taking up the position as chief of the General Staff in 1930.[1]

Boustedt was a strong supporter of the idea of intimate cooperation between the Nordic countries for joint protection, wanted the commanders to have intimate contact with other professional groups and wished to broaden their understanding of social life in its various forms. He also drafted instructions for field service training.[2] In Sweden during the 1930s, ideas were born about Swedish-Finnish military cooperation for Finland's (and thus also Sweden's) defense with, among other things, the Swedish field army (plus the air force's 100 fighter aircraft) under a League of Nations flag on the Karelian Isthmus, protect Finland against an expected Soviet attack. A driving force on the Swedish side was chief of the General Staff Boustedt, who led reconnaissance on the isthmus and was one of the forces behind the opposition group Antingen – eller ("Either...or") within the Swedish Army.[3] As chief of the General Staff, Boustedt, also disapproved of plans to make propaganda films intended to boost patriotic motivation among the conscripts. In a letter to the Armé- och Marinfilm ("Army and Navy Film", AMF), written in 1931, Boustedt claimed that due to their individualistic national character, Swedish conscripts were suspicious of any manipulative efforts from the authorities. Only films that had no obvious intention of guiding the viewers’ thinking in a certain direction could have a genuine influence on Swedish audiences, he argued.[4]

Boustedt was promoted to lieutenant general in 1933 and retired from the military the same year.[1] After his retirement, he created respect through a series of investigations and extensive attempts to create conditions for the partial modernization of the army, which was decided in 1936.[2] Boustedt was also secretary of the Military Literature Association (Militärlitteraturföreningen) from 1909 to 1917,[1] member of the Infantry Commission (Infanterikommissionen) from 1920 to 1921,[2] military member of the King's Supreme Court from 1930[5] until 18 May 1934,[6] as well as chairman of the 1933 Flight Commission (1933 års flygkommission).[7]

Personal life

In 1917, he married Stina Håkansson (born 1881), the daughter of captain Axel Håkansson and Emma Tottie.[1] They were parents of Bo Boustedt (1919–2001), an architect.

Boustedt died on 24 October 1939 at Röda Korsets sjukhem in Stockholm.[8]

Dates of rank

• 1891 – Underlöjtnant
• 1895 – Lieutenant
• 1904 – Captain
• 1912 – Major
• 1915 – Lieutenant Colonel
• 1917 – Colonel
• 1928 – Major General
• 1933 – Lieutenant General

Awards and decorations

• Commander First Class of the Order of the Sword[9]
• Commander Second Class of the Order of the Sword (1921)[10]
• Knight of the Order of the Sword (1912)[10]
• Knight of the Order of Vasa (1913)[10]
• Knight of the Order of the Polar Star (1916)[10]
• Officer of the Legion of Honour[9]

Honours

• Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences (1913)[1]

Bibliography

• Statsbanornas användning för militära ändamål (1906)
• Boustedt, Bo Ivar (1912). Kriget i Tyskland 1809: Regensburg. Skrifter / Militärlitteraturföreningens förlag, 99-0578882-4 ; 110 (in Swedish). Stockholm: Norstedt. SELIBR 1633657.

References

1. Vem är det: svensk biografisk handbok. 1939 [Who is it: Swedish biographical handbook. 1939] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Norstedt. 1939. p. 118. SELIBR 3681516.
2. Kjellberg, H.E., ed. (1940). Svenska Dagbladets årsbok SJUTTONDE ÅRGÅNGEN (Händelserna 1939) [Svenska Dagbladet's Yearbook SEVENTEENTH VOLUME (Events of 1939)] (in Swedish). 17. Stockholm: Svenska Dagbladet. p. 268. SELIBR 283647.
3. Huldt, Bo (2008). "1808-1809 års krig" (PDF). Kungl. Krigsvetenskapsakademiens handlingar och tidskrift (in Swedish). 212 (3): 56. ISSN 0023-5369. SELIBR 11168759.
4. Ahlbäck, Anders (2019). "Book Review". Nordic Journal of Educational History. Umeå: Department of historical, philosophical and religious studies, Umeå University. 6 (1): 3. ISSN 2001-7766. SELIBR 17428004.
5. Sveriges statskalender för året 1931 (in Swedish). Uppsala: Fritzes offentliga publikationer. 1931. p. 70.
6. "Högsta domstolen". www.svjt.se (in Swedish). Svensk Juristtidning. 1934. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
7. Lindberger, Anders, ed. (1953). Förteckning över statliga utredningar 1904-1945 (in Swedish). Stockholm: Riksdagsbibl. p. 261. SELIBR 11051.
8. "Generallöjtnant Bo Boustedt". Vestkusten (in Swedish) (47). San Francisco & Oakland, Cal. 23 November 1939. p. 2. SELIBR 4085814. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
9. Sveriges statskalender för året 1925 (in Swedish). Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell. 1925. p. 242.
10. Jacobson, L. (1925). "Bo I Boustedt". Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (in Swedish). 5. National Archives of Sweden. p. 609. Retrieved 22 August 2019.

External links

• Article at Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (in Swedish)