Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten (Gustaf Adolf Oscar Fredrik Arthur Edmund; 22 April 1906 – 26 January 1947) was a Swedish prince who for most of his life was second in the line of succession to the Swedish throne. He was the eldest son of Gustaf VI Adolf, who was crown prince for most of his son's life and ascended the Swedish throne three years after his son's death. The current king, Carl XVI Gustaf, is Prince Gustaf Adolf's son. The prince was killed on 26 January 1947 in an airplane crash at Kastrup Airport, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Gustaf Adolf was born in Stockholm on 22 April 1906 as the eldest son of the then Prince Gustaf Adolf and his first wife Princess Margaret. He was known by his last given name, Edmund, in the family.
As an official representative of Sweden, Gustaf Adolf met with many Nazi leaders, including Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring, which has led to speculations about possible Nazi sympathies. In his book Alla dessa Bernadottar (All these Bernadottes), Staffan Skott asserts that letters and diary entries by influential anti-Nazi Swedes disprove the rumors. The Swedish Royal Court made a statement denying any knowledge of Nazi sympathies.[17][better source needed]
Gustaf Adolf expressed his support for Finland during the Continuation War of 1941–1944, and would even have liked to participate as a voluntary soldier in the Winter War of 1939–1940, but the King's disapproval prevented this from happening.[citation needed]
Some leading Swedish politicians were averse to the possibility of seeing Gustaf Adolf inherit the throne, and one prominent Social Democrat publicly uttered that the prince was "a person who must never be king".[18]
Gustaf Adolf's and Sibylla's grave on Karlsborg Island in Solna, Sweden.
Gustaf Adolf was killed in an airplane crash in the afternoon of 26 January 1947 at Kastrup Airport, Copenhagen, Denmark.[19] The prince, along with two companions, was returning to Stockholm from a hunting trip and visit to Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. The delayed KLM flight from Amsterdam had landed at Copenhagen for a routine stop before continuing to Stockholm. Soon after the Douglas DC-3 aircraft took off, it climbed to an altitude of about 50 meters (150 ft), stalled, and plummeted nose-first to the ground, where it exploded on impact. All 22 people aboard the plane (16 passengers and six crew members) were killed. Also aboard the ill-fated flight was American singer and actress Grace Moore and Danish actress Gerda Neumann.[19] An investigation found that an inexperienced young employee had serviced the aircraft and, short of time, the plane's captain had failed to perform the final pre-flight check list properly. He took off not realizing that elevator locking pins were still in place.[20]
At the time of his death, Gustaf Adolf had been second in line to the Swedish throne behind his father, the crown prince, who in 1950 became King Gustaf VI Adolf. The younger Gustaf Adolf was succeeded as second in line by his only son, Carl Gustaf (at the time only 9 months old), who would later succeed his grandfather in 1973 as King Carl XVI Gustaf.
^John S. Wilson (1959), Scouting Round the World. First edition, Blandford Press. p. 94, 95, 99, 102, 106, 110, 115, 124, 127, 136, 140, 141, 185
^Kroonenberg, Piet J. (1998). The Undaunted- The Survival and Revival of Scouting in Central and Eastern Europe. Geneva: Oriole International Publications. p. 31. ISBN2-88052-003-7.
^Kroonenberg, Piet J. (2003). The Undaunted II–The Survival and Revival of Scouting in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. Las Vegas: Las Vegas International Scouting Museum. p. 77. ISBN0-9746479-0-X.
1Also prince of Norway 2Also prince of Poland and Lithuania 3Lost his title due to an unequal marriage 4Not Swedish prince by birth, but created prince of Sweden
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