Olav V of Norway

Olav V (born Prince Alexander of Denmark; 2 July 1903 – 17 January 1991) was King of Norway from 1957 until his death in 1991.

Olav was the only child of King Haakon VII of Norway and Maud of Wales.

He became heir apparent to the Norwegian throne when his father was elected King of Norway in 1905.

He was the first heir to the Norwegian throne to be brought up in Norway since Olav IV in the fourteenth century, and his parents made sure he was given as Norwegian an upbringing as possible.

In preparation for his future role, he attended both civilian and military schools.

In 1905, Carl was elected King of Norway and took the name Haakon VII.

The king gave his two-year-old son the Norwegian name Olav after Olaf Haakonsson, king of Norway and Denmark.

Olav was thus the first heir to the throne since the Middle Ages to have been raised in Norway.

Unlike his father, who was a naval officer, Olav chose to complete his main military education in the army.

The British Film Institute houses an early film, made in 1913, in which a miniature car (a "baby Cadillac") commissioned by Queen Alexandra for Crown Prince Olav tows a procession of Londoners through the streets of the capital, before being delivered to a pair of "royal testers" of roughly Olav's age.

The car is a battery-powered, one-third size replica on a four-foot wheelbase, and is on permanent loan to the Norsk Teknisk Museum in Oslo.

As Crown Prince, Olav had received extensive military training and had participated in most major Norwegian military exercises.

Because of this he was perhaps one of the most knowledgeable Norwegian military leaders and was respected by other Allied leaders for his knowledge and leadership skills.

During a visit to the United States before the war, he and his wife had established a close relationship with President Roosevelt.

These factors would prove to be important for the Norwegian fight against the attacking German forces.

He graduated from the three-year Norwegian Military Academy in 1924, with the fourth best score in his class.

Olav then went on to study jurisprudence and economics for two years at Balliol College, Oxford.

He won a gold medal in sailing at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam and remained an active sailor into old age.

In 1929, he married his first cousin Princess Märtha of Sweden.

On 21 March 1929 in Oslo, he married his first cousin Princess Märtha of Sweden with whom he had two daughters, Ragnhild and Astrid and one son, Harald.

As exiles during World War II, Crown Princess Märtha and the royal children lived in Washington, D.C., where she struck up a close friendship with Franklin D. Roosevelt.

During the 1930s, Crown Prince Olav was a naval cadet serving on the minelayer/cadet training ship Olav Tryggvason.

Olav moved up the ranks of the Norwegian armed forces, rising in the army from an initial rank of first lieutenant to captain in 1931 and colonel in 1936.

He was an accomplished athlete.

Olav jumped from the Holmenkollen ski jump in Oslo and competed in sailing regattas.

In 1939, Crown Prince Olav was appointed an admiral of the Royal Norwegian Navy and a general of the Norwegian Army.

During World War II, Olav stood by his father's side in resisting the German occupation of Norway.

During the campaign he was a valuable advisor both to civilian and military leaders.

When the Norwegian government decided to go into exile, he offered to stay behind with the Norwegian people, but this was declined.

He reluctantly followed his father to the United Kingdom, where he and his staff and servants and aides continued to be a key advisor to the government-in-exile and his father.

During World War II his leadership was much appreciated and he was appointed Norwegian Chief of Defence in 1944.

One source states that Olav helped "to build and lead a free fighting force" and made radio broadcasts" while in England. Olav made several visits to Norwegian and Allied troops in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. In 1944, he was appointed to the post of Norwegian Chief of Defence and after the war he led the Norwegian disarmament of the German occupying forces. On 13 May 1945 Crown Prince Olav and five government ministers returned to a liberated Norway. The arrival was documented in a newsreel by British Pathé News.

His war decorations from other nations, including the War Crosses of Norway, France, Greece and the Netherlands, the US Legion of Merit and the French Médaille Militaire, are testament to the international recognition of his contribution to the war against Hitler.

She died in 1954, before her husband ascended the throne.

Haakon was injured in an accident in 1955; his son Olav served as regent until his death.

Olav became king following the death of his father in 1957.

Owing to his considerate, down-to-earth style, King Olav was immensely popular, resulting in the nickname Folkekongen ('The People's King').

In a 2005 poll by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, Olav was voted "Norwegian of the Century".

Olav was born as Prince Alexander Edward Christian Frederik in Appleton House on the royal Sandringham Estate, Flitcham, United Kingdom.

His parents were Prince Carl, second son of Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark (later King Frederick VIII), and Princess Maud, youngest daughter of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, who was the eldest son of Britain's Queen Victoria.