10 Facts About Hallvard Devold

Hallvard Ophuus Devold was a Norwegian Arctic explorer, trapper and meteorologist.

Hallvard Devold was instrumental in the attempt to establish Eric the Red's Land in 1931.

Hallvard Devold worked as a meteorological assistant at the Haldde Observatory in Alta until 1922.

Hallvard Devold went for the first time to the Arctic in the summer of 1922 as a coal mining technician in Svalbard.

Hallvard Devold remained on Kvadehuken until October 1924, when the station was wrapped up for financial reasons.

Between 1925 and 1926 Hallvard Devold was the head of the Norwegian radio and weather station at Jan Mayen, which was manned by three Norwegians, not including him.

Hallvard Devold decided to call for its annexation on behalf of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute.

Hallvard Devold placed several signs around the island which read: "Property of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute".

Together with geologist Adolf Hoel and jurist Gustav Smedal, Hallvard Devold became one of the main leaders of the "Greenland case" that tried to bring large swathes of East Greenland under Norwegian sovereignty.

At the time of World War II Hallvard Devold volunteered for military service in the spring of 1940 and took part in the Battle of Narvik as an Allied soldier of the Foreign Legion in French uniform, but partly under Norwegian command.