Ivar Backlund

Lieutenant General Gustav Ivar Backlund (14 February 1892 – 5 July 1969) was a Swedish Army officer. His senior commands include Commandant in Boden Fortress, Chief of the Army Staff and the General Staff Corps. Backlund was also military commander of the VII Military District and head of the Swedish National Defence College.

Backlund was born on 14 February 1892 in Gothenburg, Sweden, the son of Anders Backlund, a phytosanitary inspector, and his wife Thérese Floberg. He passed studentexamen in 1909 and was commissioned as an officer in Göta Life Guards (I 2) in 1912 with the rank of underlöjtnant. He attended the Royal Swedish Army Staff College from 1918 to 1920 and served as captain in the General Staff in 1924. Backlund was adjutant to the head of the Ministry of Defence from 1926 to 1928 and served as a general staff officer in the Militärläroverksinspektionen from 1928 to 1933. Backlund was teacher at the Artillery and Engineering College from 1933 to 1937 and was promoted to major in 1934. He was then serving as vice chief of the Military Office of the Land Defence (Lantförsvarets kommandoexpedition) from 1937 to 1939 and he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1937.

Backlund served in Södermanland Infantry Regiment (I 10) in 1939 and the year after he was promoted to colonel and was appointed regimental commander of the Dalarna Regiment (I 13). In 1944, Backlund was appointed Commandant in Boden Fortress and he served as acting deputy military commander of the IV Military District from 1944 to 1946. He was promoted to major general in 1946 and served as Chief of the Army Staff and the General Staff Corps from 1946 to 1948. Backlund was military commander of the VII Military District from 1 October 1948 to 31 March 1955 and head of the Swedish National Defence College from 1 April 1955 to 1956. He was promoted to lieutenant general in 1957 and retired from the military.

He became chairman of the Swedish Pistol-shooting Association (Svenska pistolskytteförbundet) in 1946 and the Educational Swedish Swimming Association (Svenska livräddningssällskapet) in 1947.

In 1935, he married Margareta Troili (born 1904), the daughter of Eilert Troili, an accountant, and Gunhild Behmer.

• 1912 – Underlöjtnant
• 19?? – Lieutenant
• 1924 – Captain
• 1934 – Major
• 1937 – Lieutenant Colonel
• 1940 – Colonel
• 1946 – Major General
• 1957 – Lieutenant General

Swedish

• Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the Sword (6 June 1953)
• Commander First Class of the Order of the Sword (6 June1946)
• Commander Second Class of the Order of the Sword (15 November 1943)
• Knight First Class of the Order of the Sword (1933)
• Knight of the Order of the Polar Star (1939)
• Knight First Class of the Order of Vasa (1928)
• För medborgerlig förtjänst in gold

Foreign

• Commander of the Order of the White Rose of Finland (between 1940 and 1942)
• Commander Second Class of the Order of the White Rose of Finland (between 1935 and 1940)
• Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland (between 1947 and 1950)
• Order of the German Eagle (1942)
• Knight of theOrder of Leopold (between 1925 and 1928)
• För medborgerlig förtjänst in gold

• Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences (1938)