Margrét Þóra Hallgrímsson (28 January 1930 – 27 August 2020), also referred as Thora Hallgrimsdottir, was an Icelandic socialite and aristocrat who was the wife of the businessman

Björgólfur Guðmundsson Björgólfur Guðmundsson (2 January 1941 – 2 February 2025) was an Icelandic businessman and chairman and owner of West Ham United. Björgólfur was Iceland's second businessman to be worth more than a billion dollars — his son, Björgólf ...

and like him was a prominent figure in the cultural and business life of Iceland from around 2002 to 2008. She was also the former wife of

American Nazi Party The American Nazi Party (ANP) is an American neo-Nazi Political parties in the United States, political party founded by George Lincoln Rockwell in 1959. In Rockwell's time, it was headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It was renamed the Natio ...

founder

George Lincoln Rockwell George Lincoln Rockwell (March 9, 1918 – August 25, 1967) was an American neo-Nazi activist who founded the American Nazi Party (ANP) and became one of the most notorious white supremacists in the United States until his murder in 1967. His b ...

Family and surname

Þóra was born in

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

, the eldest daughter of Hallgrímur Fr. Hallgrímsson, chairman of

Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...

in Iceland and consul in Canada, and his wife

Margrét Þorbjörg Thors Hallgrímsson Margrét Þorbjörg Thors Hallgrímsson (April 22, 1902 – September 2, 1996) was a matriarch of one of the most powerful families in Iceland in the twentieth century. She was the eighth child of Margrét Þorbjörg Kristjánsdóttir and Thor Ph ...

, daughter of the businessman

Thor Philip Axel Jensen Thor Philip Axel Jensen (3 December 1863 – 12 September 1947) was a Danish entrepreneur who moved to Iceland at an early age and became famous there for his business activities during the first half of the twentieth century: he all but intro ...

. Although ethnically Icelandic, Þóra's father Hallgrímur was born in Canada. His surname Hallgrímsson is in fact his father's

patronym A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, ...

, which his father had taken as a

surname In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...

when moving to Canada. In turn, Þóra also inherited the surname, giving rise to the unusual situation of a female Icelander with a last name ending in -''son'' (see

Icelandic name Icelandic names are names used by people from Iceland. Icelandic surnames are different from most other naming systems in the modern Western world in that they are patronymic or occasionally matronymic: they indicate the father (or mother) o ...

). At 14, Þóra was sent to boarding school in the UK.

Marriages

While studying in England, Þóra received a marriage proposal from

David Tomlinson David Cecil MacAlister Tomlinson (7 May 1917 – 24 June 2000) was an English stage, film and television actor, singer and comedian. Having been described as both a leading man and a character actor, he is primarily remembered for his roles wit ...

, whereupon her father had her return to Iceland, via a spell studying in the US. Once in Iceland, Þóra met Haukur Clausen, an Olympic athlete and later dentist, and married him on 6 January 1951. Together they had Örn Friðrik (born 13 July 1951),Cf. 'Haukur Clausen', ''Morgunblaðið'', 13 May 2003, http://www.mbl.is/greinasafn/grein/730658/. but they separated just a year later due to Clausen having an affair with Þóra's best friend. On 3 October 1953 Þóra married

, an officer in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

and later founder of the

, moving with him to America. With him she had three further children: Hallgrímur, Margrét, and Evelyn Bentína. In Roger Boyes's account, :: Olafur Thors’s niece Thora Hallgrimsdottir was in trouble. Thora was a free spirit. At a ball in Reykjavik she had fallen for a handsome American naval Officer, George Lincoln Rockwell—a war hero to boot—and abandoned her marriage to a well-connected Icelandic dentist to wed him. All harmless enough, except that Rockwell became a founder of the American Nazi Party and one of the most active racists in the United States. One of his missions was to take the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

into the modern age; he coined the phrase "

White Power White pride and white power are expressions primarily used by white separatist, white nationalist, fascist, neo-Nazi, and white supremacist organizations in order to signal racist or racialist viewpoints. It is also a slogan used by the promi ...

", organized rallies, and operated a Hate Bus to stir up sentiment against

African-Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

. Accounts of Þóra's divorce from Rockwell, which include Rockwell's own autobiography, and her return to Iceland vary. Her father Hallgrímur travelled to the United States in 1958 to bring his daughter home; according to Boyes, the family asked

to help convince Þóra to return to Iceland, but according to her son Björgólfur Thor, Þóra met Björgólfur Guðmundsson back in Iceland. Either way, Þóra moved back with her four children, divorced Rockwell, and in 1963 married Björgólfur. She had one son by Björgólfur,

Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson Björgólfur () may refer to: *Björgólfur Guðmundsson (1941–2025), Icelandic banker, shipping industry and football executive *Björgólfur Hideaki Takefusa (born 1980), Icelandic football forward of Japanese descent *Björgólfur Thor Björg� ...

, but Björgólfur Guðmundsson also adopted Þóra's children by Rockwell. Þóra's grandson, by her daughter Evelyn Bentína Björgólfsdóttir, is former footballer Björgólfur Hideaki Takefusa.

Controversy over biography

In 2005, Guðmundur Magnússon published the book ''Thorsararnir'', on the history of the descendants of Thor Jensen. In the first version of the book was a chapter on Þóra's marriage with Rockwell. The book was published by the press Edda, but Björgólfur, who owned the publisher, had the author change the text. Moreover, he tried to buy the newspaper ''Dagblaðið-Vísir'', which had discussed the matter, in order to close it down.

Appearances in popular culture

Þóra was the model for the character Lilja Jónsdóttir in the novel ''Sakleysingjarnir'' by Ólaf Jóhann Ólafsson.Chairman of Landsbanki burning books?
, ''Iceland Review'' (December 05, 2005, updated January 30, 2014).

References

External links

''This Time The World'', autobiography of George Lincoln Rockwell.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hallgrimsson, Margret Thora Margret Thora Hallgrímsson Margret Thora Hallgrímsson 2020 deaths 1930 births Margret Thora Hallgrímsson Margret Thora Hallgrímsson Thors family