Vilhelm Swedenborg

Gustaf Vilhelm Emanuel Swedenborg (17 June 1869 in Kvidinge – 1943 in Drottningholm)[1] son of lieutenant colonel Gustaf Erik Oscar Swedenborg and Maria Therése Fock,[2] was a member of the Swedish military and an aeronaut, today remembered as a reservist on Salomon August Andrée's failed North Pole expedition in 1897 and for being one of the first Swedish balloonists.

He was also a relative of the Swedish philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg, and his famous last name gave a certain prestige to the expedition.

However, the expedition never needed his efforts, and after the balloon took off from Danes Island, he went home to Sweden where he followed a military career.

[4] Together with Hans Frænkel and Eric Unge he set a Swedish record in long-distance flying with balloon.

The aging lieutenant colonel Swedenborg (he was retired in 1921) was part of the honour guard when the bodies were received in Sweden; a display of heraldic grief unmatched until the assassination of Olof Palme almost 60 years later.