Birger Hedqvist

Piteå is a locality and the seat of Piteå Municipality in Norrbotten County, Sweden. Piteå is Sweden's 58th largest city, with a population of 23,326.

Norrbotten County is the northernmost county or län of Sweden. It is also the largest county by land area, almost a quarter of Sweden's total area. It shares borders with Västerbotten County to the southwest, the Gulf of Bothnia to the southeast, the counties of Nordland and Troms og Finnmark in Norway to the northwest, and Lapland Province in Finland to the northeast.

Studentexamen, earlier also mogenhetsexamen was the name of the university entrance examination in Sweden from the 17th century to 1968. From 1862 to 1968, it was taken as a final written and oral exam on graduation from gymnasium. In Finland the examination still exists. The exam traces its origin to the academic statutes from 1655 requiring the dean to examine students arriving at university before allowing matriculation. According to the school reglement of 1693, a prospective student was to have gone through both a final examination at school and an entrance examination at university. The school reglement of 1724 allowed students without a final examination from school to enroll at university, provided a person known at the university would guarantee their behaviour, which led to it becoming common for students from wealthy families to be matriculated at a very young age, accompanied by a private tutor. Although these were not actually supposed to be allowed to graduate, this rule was not always strictly upheld.

Umeå is a city in northeast Sweden. It is the seat of Umeå Municipality and the capital of Västerbotten County.

Military Academy Karlberg is a Swedish military academy, since its inauguration in 1792 in operation in the Karlberg Palace in Solna, just north of central Stockholm. It is thus the oldest military academy in the world to remain in its original location.

The Norrland Artillery Regiment, designation A 4, was a Swedish Army artillery regiment that traced its origins back to the 19th century. The regiment's soldiers were originally recruited from the provinces of Norrland. The regiment was disbanded in 1997. From 1998 to 2000, the Boden Artillery Regiment was known by this name.

Artillery and Engineering College was a Swedish Army training establishment active between 1878 and 1992, providing courses for artillery officers. It was located within the Stockholm Garrison in Stockholm, Sweden.

Army Staff is the staff of the Chief of the Swedish Army. It was originally established in 1937. The Army Staff's duties then included, among other things to assist the Chief of the Army with leadership of the Army's mobilization, training, tactics, organization, equipment and personnel to the extent that such activity was not directly related to operational activities, which was handled by the Defence Staff. In 1994 the Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters took over the Army Staff's duties. In 2019, the Army Staff was re-established, now located in Enköping Garrison.

Artillery Staff in the Swedish Army consisted of commanding officers from the artillery units and had the task of assisting the Master-General of the Ordnance and the Inspector of Artillery in all his activities related questions. It was active between 1807 and 1937.

The Deputy Chief of Ordnance was in Sweden the head of the Swedish Army's ordnance establishments. During the 1800s and 1900s, his duties changed several times. The position was abolished in 1968.

Materiel refers to supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain management, and typically supplies and equipment in a commercial supply chain context.

The Minister for Defence of Sweden is a member of the Government of Sweden. The Minister heads the Ministry for Defence and is appointed and dismissed at the sole discretion of the prime minister of Sweden.

The Chief of Army is the most senior appointment in the Swedish Army. The position Chief of Army was introduced in 1937 and the current form in 2014.

Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, Finland to the east, and is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge–tunnel across the Öresund. At 447,425 square kilometres (172,752 sq mi), Sweden is the largest Nordic country, the third-largest country in the European Union, and the fifth-largest country in Europe. The capital and largest city is Stockholm. Sweden has a total population of 10.5 million, and a low population density of 25.5 inhabitants per square kilometre (66/sq mi), with around 87% of Swedes residing in urban areas, which cover 1.5% of the entire land area, in the central and southern half of the country.

The Royal Order of the Sword is a Swedish order of chivalry and military decoration created by King Frederick I of Sweden on 23 February 1748, together with the Order of the Seraphim and the Order of the Polar Star. The motto of the order is in Latin: Pro Patria.

The Royal Order of Vasa is a Swedish order of chivalry, awarded to citizens of Sweden for service to state and society especially in the fields of agriculture, mining and commerce. It was instituted on 29 May 1772 by King Gustav III. It was unrestricted by birth or education and could therefore be awarded to anyone. It was the most junior of all the Swedish orders. It was often awarded to Norwegian subjects of the dual monarchy until Oscar I founded the Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1847. Previously considered dormant from 1974, the order has again been active since 1 February 2023.

The Royal Order of the Polar Star is a Swedish order of chivalry created by King Frederick I on 23 February 1748, together with the Order of the Sword and the Order of the Seraphim. The Order of the Polar Star is intended as a reward for Swedish and foreign "civic merits, for devotion to duty, for science, literary, learned and useful works and for new and beneficial institutions".

Denmark is a Nordic constituent country in Northern Europe. It is the most populous and politically central constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland in the North Atlantic Ocean. Metropolitan Denmark is the southernmost of the Scandinavian countries, lying south-west and south of Sweden, south of Norway, and north of Germany, with which it shares a short land border, its only land border.

The Order of the Dannebrog is a Danish order of chivalry instituted in 1671 by Christian V. Until 1808, membership in the Order was limited to fifty members of noble or royal rank, who formed a single class known as White Knights to distinguish them from the Blue Knights who were members of the Order of the Elephant. In 1808, the Order was reformed and divided into four classes. The statute of the Order was amended in 1951 by a Royal Ordinance so that both men and women could be members of the Order. Today, the Order of the Dannebrog is a means of honouring and rewarding the faithful servants of the modern Danish state for meritorious civil or military service, for a particular contribution to the arts, sciences or business life, or for working for Danish interests.

France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. It also includes overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, giving it one of the largest discontiguous exclusive economic zones in the world. Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea; overseas territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Its eighteen integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 km2 (248,573 sq mi) and had a total population of over 68 million as of January 2023. France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre; other major urban areas include Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille, Bordeaux, and Nice.

The National Order of the Legion of Honour, formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour, is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, it has been retained by all later French governments and regimes.

Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, across from Estonia. Finland covers an area of 338,455 square kilometres (130,678 sq mi) with a population of 5.6 million. Helsinki is the capital and largest city. The vast majority of the population are ethnic Finns. Finnish and Swedish are the official languages, Swedish is the native language of 5.2% of the population. Finland's climate varies from humid continental in the south to the boreal in the north. The land cover is primarily a boreal forest biome, with more than 180,000 recorded lakes.

The Order of the Cross of Liberty is one of three official state orders in Finland, along with the Order of the White Rose of Finland and the Order of the Lion of Finland.

Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of Norway. Bouvet Island, located in the Subantarctic, is a dependency of Norway; it also lays claims to the Antarctic territories of Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land. The capital and largest city in Norway is Oslo.

King Haakon VII's Medal of Liberty was established on 18 May 1945. The medal is awarded to Norwegian or foreign military or civilian personnel for significant service to Norway during World War II. This service need not have been in direct contact with the enemy.