Erik Grant Lea

Erik Lawrence Grant Lea (October 15, 1892 – April 28, 1979) was a Norwegian ship-owner, banker, insurer and mill owner.

Those that grew up in Bergen after World War II could hardly avoid hearing the fairy tale about Lea, a fellow citizen, who became the richest ship owner in the world, married an Indian princess, and then lost everything and settled with his princess in some distant corner of Sognefjord.

His spouse Hilda was no princess, but the daughter of a major and an Indian woman from a wealthy business family from Bangalore.

In 1922 Lea lost everything and settled in Gjølanger in Fjaler in Sunnfjord, Sogn og Fjordane and had to start from scratch earning a living for himself and his family.

In the meantime, as the wartime shipping bonanza ended, his companies ran into a crisis, and were declared bankrupt by 1921.

After his bankruptcy he moved to a little, but still operating saw mill in Gjølanger (Fjaler municipality, Sogn og Fjordane county), which his creditors had not attacked.

He also established a grain mill, a grocery shop, a steam ship quay, a telephone line and a power station.

He also operated a lime kiln in Smilden, on the north bank of Åfjorden (a fjord), between Hyllestad and Sørbøvåg.

The land near his residence, Lea Hall, he bought to build one family houses with garden for workers.

He engaged architect Schumann Olsen to make a development plan for a garden suburb at Finnebergåsen.

Lea joined the Norwegian Home Guard immediately after the war and was an active officer until he approached eighty.

The vicar in the Catholic parish in Bergen held masses there at Lea's birthday and 17 May, the national constitution day.

The Nobel Prize winner, the Norwegian Catholic author Sigrid Undset was also his guest there.