Rear Admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...

Erik Torsten Lindh (10 August 1941 – 7 August 2020) was a

Swedish Navy The Swedish Navy () is the maritime service branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the Fleet (), formally sometimes referred to as the Royal Navy () – as well as marine units, the Amph ...

officer. He was Inspector General of the Navy from 1998 to 2001.

Early life

Lindh was born on 10 August 1941 in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

, Sweden, the son of managing director Arne Lindh and his wife Margareta (née Richs). He passed ''

studentexamen Studentexamen (Swedish for "students' examination" or "students' degree"), earlier also ''mogenhetsexamen'' ("maturity examination") was the name of the university entrance examination in Sweden from the 17th century to 1968. From 1862 to 1968, ...

'' in Gothenburg in 1961. Before his military service at

Bohuslän Regiment The Bohuslän Regiment (), designation I 17, was a Swedish Army infantry regiment that traces its origins back 1661. It was disbanded in 1992. The regiment's soldiers were originally recruited from the provinces of Bohuslän, and it was later gar ...

(I 17) in

Uddevalla Uddevalla is a Stad (Sweden), town in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It’s the seat of Uddevalla Municipality. In 2015, it had a population of 34,781, making it the largest town fully in Bohuslän. Uddevalla is located where the river Bäveån ...

, Lindh studied mathematics at the university with the aim of becoming a

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

. He disliked the university and sent an application to the

and was accepted.

Career

Lindh was commissioned as an officer after graduating from the Royal Swedish Naval Academy in 1965 and then served as first officer of the torpedo boat . Lindh was later captain of the torpedo boats and and commanding officer of the 3rd Patrol Boat Division (''3. patrullbåtsdivisionen''). He attended the Swedish Armed Forces Staff College in 1975 and served in the Planning and Budget Secretariat at the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

from 1983 and attended the Swedish National Defence College in 1985. Lindh was commanding officer of the 3rd Naval Warfare Flotilla from 1988 to 1989. From 1989 to 1992, Lindh was head of the Program Staff (''Programledning'') in the Naval Staff at the Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters. He was promoted to senior captain in 1993. He served as head of the Swedish Armed Forces Internal Audit until the 1 July 1994 when he was promoted to rear admiral and appointed Director Joint Staff (''Chef för ledningsstaben'') in the Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters. Lindh served as the Inspector General of the Navy and commander of the Naval Center/Naval Tactical Command from 1998 to 2001.

Post-retirement

Lindh retired from active service in 2001 at the age of 60 and was then chairman of the Air Defense Investigation (''Luftförsvarsutredningen'') for one year. He then took up a position as a teacher of mathematics at Samskolan in

Saltsjöbaden Saltsjöbaden is a locality in Nacka Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 9,491 inhabitants in 2010. It is on the Baltic Sea coast, deep in the Stockholm Archipelago. History Saltsjöbaden () was developed as a resort by Knut Agathon W ...

. He was named Teacher of the Year by the students. Lindh was a board member of the

Defence Materiel Administration The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (, FMV) is a Swedish government agency that reports to the Ministry of Defence. The agency is responsible for the supply of materiel to the Swedish defence organisation. It is located in Stockholm. D ...

and the

Swedish Fortifications Agency The Swedish Fortifications Agency () is a Swedish government agency under the Ministry of Finance, tasked with managing government-owned defence-related buildings and land. The agency functions as the landlord for the Swedish Armed Forces (), m ...

. He was also a member of the Royal Swedish Society of Naval Sciences and the

Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences () is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden and was founded on 12 November 1796 by Gustaf Wilhelm af Tibell. The academy is an independent organization and a forum for military (army and air force) and de ...

. During the years 1997–2003, Lindh was chairman of the Naval Officers' Association in Stockholm (''Sjöofficerssällskapet i Stockholm''). He also actively participated in the Friends of the

Vasa Museum The Vasa Museum () is a maritime museum in Stockholm, Sweden. Located on the island of Djurgården, the museum displays the only almost fully intact 17th-century ship that has ever been salvaged, the 64-gun warship '' Vasa'' that sank on her maid ...

association and the Vasa Redeviva foundation. He was also chairman of the Ymer 80 Foundation and was involved in Swedeship Marine, which builds fast and powerful aluminum boats for professional use.

Personal life

In 1966 he married banker Kristina Bane (born 1943), the daughter of civil engineer Per Bane and Eivor (née Almér). They had two children: Magnus and Annika. He lived in

Västerhaninge Västerhaninge () is a locality situated in Haninge Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden. It had 15,134 inhabitants in 2010. It is connected to Stockholm by commuter rail. Västerhaninge borders the large Hanveden forest to the north, the Jord ...

and had a summer house on

Orust Orust () is an island in Bohuslän, western Sweden. In 2014 Statistics Sweden declared it to ibe the fourth largest island in Sweden, under a definition which adds artificial canals to the possible bodies of water surrounding an island. It has bee ...

Death

Lindh died on 7 August 2020 in Kungsviken,

Orust Municipality Orust Municipality () is a municipality in Västra Götaland County in western Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Henån, with an approximate population of 1,800. The municipality includes Sweden's third largest island Orust and some ...

, Sweden. The funeral was held on 28 August 2020 in on

. He was interred in Morlanda Old Cemetery on 2 October 2020.

Dates of rank

*1965 – Acting sub-lieutenant *19?? – Sub-lieutenant *19?? –

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

*1976 – Lieutenant commander *1981 –

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank as well as a job title in many army, armies. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countri ...

*1988 –

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

*1993 – Senior captain *1994 –

Rear admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindh, Torsten 1941 births 2020 deaths Swedish Navy rear admirals Military personnel from Gothenburg Members of the Royal Swedish Society of Naval Sciences Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences