Severin Finne

Severin Finne first entered a military career, attending the military academy from 1901-04. Subsequently, he studied law and graduated in 1908. Nevertheless, he held the rank of an infantry captain until 1918. After graduation, he continued his studies in England and Paris, along the way improving his fencing skills. In 1909, Finne was a deputy judge in southern Norway for a short time before he joined a law office in Kristiania (now Oslo). From 1914, he ran his own office and became a lawyer at the Supreme Court. After World War II, he eventually entered into a partnership with a younger lawyer. He was a chairman or member of the board of various business enterprises.

From the Kristiania Fekteklub, Finne represented Norway in the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm in the épée individual and team events. Later, he won five national championships in épée fencing (1914-17 and 1919) and was appointed president of the Norwegian Fencing Association (1921-25). He was also a member of the Norwegian Olympic Committee and a board member of the National Theatre from 1933.

In 1908, Finne married Esther Lucy Egeberg, the daughter of the royal chamberlain Ferdinand Julian Egeberg (1842–1921), who donated the Egeberg Prize of Honour for Norway’s most versatile athlete. The couple had four sons and one daughter, including the artist Ferdinand Finne (1910–1999) and the architect Hans-Gabriel “Tommy” Finne (1916–2012). After the divorce in 1920, Severin Finne took Sigrun Sommerschild Andresen (1901-1981) as his second wife two years later. He was made a Knight 1st class of the Order of Vasa.