Arne Sunde

Arne Sunde grew up in Kristiania (now Oslo) as the son of a Member of Parliament and Finance Minister and attended the Military Academy until 1905. He then graduated in law in 1911. Five years later Sunde married language teacher Sigrid Nicoline (“Didi”) Aubert Lie; together they had three sons. In 1922, he was appointed a Supreme Court lawyer and from 1931-32, he was one who pleaded Norway’s case in the “Greenland case” before the International Court of Justice in Den Haag (The Hague). Sunde was Minister of Justice from 1930-31 and from 1933-35. During this period, he also acted as mayor of Aker for two short periods. After his second spell as minister, he was a Supreme Court judge until 1936. Until the outbreak of war, he then worked as a bank manager.

During the German invasion, Sunde served as a reserve major. For the government, he went to London and helped to establish Nortraship, an organization which administered the Norwegian merchant fleet outside of German controlled waters. In 1940, he was called to become a consultative minister in the Norwegian government in exile and later as Minister of Supply and eventually as Minister of Shipping.

After World War II, Arne Sunde became chairman of the board of Nortraship, which was wound up under his leadership. From 1949-52 he served as Norway’s ambassador to the UN and was president of the Security Council when the Korean War broke out. Finally, from 1953-58, he was based in Paris as chairman of NATO’s Commission for the Control of Expenditure on Jointly Financed Defence Facilities. For his services, he was appointed Commander with Star of the Order of St. Olav and was awarded the French Croix de Guerre and the Commander’s Cross of the Legion of Honour.

At the 1912 Summer Olympics Sunde competed in various rifle events, placing sixth in the military rifle team event as his best result. He later was chairman of Kristiania Skytterlag and of Skytterlaget’s ski club, and an honorary member of Oslo Skytterlag.