Erik Testrup


Erik Mathias Hjalmar Gustafsson Testrup was a Swedish Army officer. His senior commands include commanding officer of the Eastern Army Division of the IV Army Division, Commandant General of Stockholm Garrison and as military commander of the IV Military Area.

Career

Military career

Testrup was born on 14 September 1878 in Landskrona, Sweden, the son of lieutenant colonel Gustav Testrup and his wife Mathilda Gerlin. He was commissioned as an officer in Kronoberg Regiment in 1898 with the rank of underlöjtnant. Testrup was promoted to lieutenant in 1902 and attended the Royal Swedish Army Staff College from 1904 to 1906. He then served in the General Staff in 1910 and he was promoted to captain in 1912. Testrup served as a teacher at the Royal Swedish Army Staff College from 1914 to 1915 and at the Royal Swedish Naval Staff College from 1915 to 1919. In 1917, he made a study trip to the German Western Front in 1917 and he served in the Göta Life Guards from 1917 to 1919 when he was promoted to major and served in the General Staff.
In 1922, Testrup was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed head of the Royal Swedish Army Staff College. In 1925 he made a study trip to the Netherlands and to England and the year after he was promoted to colonel and was appointed regimental commander of the North Scanian Infantry Regiment. Testrup was then commanding officer of the Military Office of the Land Defense from 1929 to 1932 and brigade commander in the Western Army Division from 1932 to 1936. He was promoted to major general in the army in 1934 and in 1936 he was appointed commanding officer of the Eastern Army Division and Commandant General of Stockholm Garrison.
In 1937, Testrup was appointed commanding officer of the IV Army Division. During this time he continued serving as Commandant General of Stockholm Garrison. In 1939, he visited the field service exercises on the Karelian Isthmus. He was appointed military commander of the IV Military Area in 1942 and in 1943 Testrup retired from active service and was at the same time promoted to lieutenant general.

Other work

Testrup was an expert on the army's providing with technical equipment from 1917 to 1918, on the training of certain technical officers from 1918 to 1921, secretary for the army in the Försvarsrevisionen from 1919 to 1923 and secretary of the General Commission in 1923. He was at the disposal of the Ministry of Defence for drafting a new army regulation from 1923 to 1924, secretary of the Land Defense in the Riksdag's Special Committee in 1924, and was an expert on the infantry exercise regulations and field service regulations from 1926 to 1927. In 1929, Testrup became a Riksdag's Upper House for The Right in 1929.
Testrup was chairman of the military association KHS from 1924 to 1926, of the Norra skånska landstormsförbundet from 1927 to 1930, of the Föreningen för befrämjandet av skolungdomens vapenövningar from 1937 to 1947, of the Stockholm district of Militär Idrott from 1937 to 1943, of the Stockholm district of the Swedish Red Cross from 1943 to 1954 and of the General Commission for Voluntary Health Care in War from 1944. He was also vice chairman of Bönnelyche & Thuröe AB from 1947 to 1959 and a member of the Executive Board of the H.M. Konungens Militärhospitals- och Medaljfonder from 1947 to 1964.

Personal life

In 1904 he married Ebba Thuröe, the daughter of Lauritz Thuröe and Christine Bönnelyche.
Testrup died on 18 December 1972. He was buried on 26 January 1973 in the Old Cemetery in Strängnäs in the same grave as his parents and his wife.

Dates of rank

Swedish