Tord Bernhard Hagen (19 January 1914 – 2008) was a Swedish diplomat and ambassador.

Biography

Early life and education

Tord Bernhard Hagen was known to his friends as Bill, a nickname given to him as a young student in Uppsala. He lost his father early and his mother

Ellen Hagen Ellen Helga Louise Hagen (''née'' Wadström; 1873–1967) was a Swedish suffragette, women's rights activist and politician. She was a member of the National Association for Women's Suffrage, the chairperson of Liberala kvinnor (Liberal Women) ...

raised him and his sister Helga while pursuing a career in politics.

Career

After graduating from

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

, Bill went on to pursue a career as a

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...

by joining the Swedish

Ministry for Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateralism, bilateral, and multilateralism, multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citi ...

. His first deployment was at the Swedish embassy in London where he directly experienced the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and the subsequent German bombings. He served as an attaché at the embassy from April 1939 to 1943. He also spent a few months in 1939 as substitute to the general counsel in Dublin. Bill would continue his career by spending the majority of his life abroad. In the forties and fifties he served at the Swedish legations in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

and

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

. In Prague, he experienced the rise of communist influence in Eastern Europe and in Bonn he saw the development of Western European cooperation. His first position as ambassador came when Bill was offered to head the installation of a new embassy in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...

. He spent five years in Southeast Asia from 1959 to 1964 as ambassador of Thailand, also overseeing Cambodia, Burma and Vietnam. Bill then spent two years working at the ministry's headquarters in Stockholm before taking over the position as ambassador of Egypt in Cairo, where he also oversaw Sudan and Somalia. In Egypt Bill experienced several turbulent incidents such as the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...

and the assassination of prime minister

Wasfi al-Tal Wasfi Tal ( ar, وصفي التل; also known as Wasfi Tell; 19 January 1919 – 28 November 1971) was a Jordanian politician, statesman and general. He served as the 15th Prime Minister of Jordan for three separate terms, 1962–63, 1965–67 an ...

of Jordan. After six years in Cairo (1966–72) Bill and the family returned to Europe where Bill served as ambassador to the Netherlands 1972-77 and ambassador to Denmark 1977–80. Despite retiring from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1980 Bill continued working as he was appointed senior advisor to Volvo International where he spent several years working in Geneva and also made extensive travels to the Middle East. After ending his assignment at Volvo Bill began penning his memoirs which resulted in the book ''Ett liv i krig och fred'' (A life in war and peace) which was published in 2000. In June 1995 Bill appeared in the BBC documentary ''Myths and memories of World War 2'' discussing the potential peace-treaty between England and Germany in 1940.

Marriage and children

In 1944 and 1946 Bill and his first wife Lena saw the birth of their children Robert and Cecilia. Bill married his second wife Inga in 1966 and their son Bernhard was born in 1969.

Death and afterward

Bill died quietly in his home in March 2008 at the age of 94.

References