Ted Wachtmeister

Ted Wachtmeister represented the rowing club of the Lundsberg School, a famous Swedish boarding school in Värmland which he attended. Together with rowers from Malmö, Hälsingborg and Stockholm, Wachtmeister took part in the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm as part of the Roddklubben af 1912 team. In the eights, the crew lost to the eventual silver medallists from the New College, Oxford in the quarter-final. One day after the end of the Olympic races, the Nordic Championship were held on the same course. Here the of the Roddklubben af 1912 won the final against Kristiania RK from Norway.

Born in Tistad Castle, Ted was the son of the university chancellor, Count Fredrik Wachtmeister. After graduating from Lundsberg School in 1911, he earned a law degree in Uppsala in 1918. He was attaché at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1918-22 and served in London and Rouen. During the time of his studies he was a reserve officer and an ensign in the Crown Prince’s Hussar Regiment reserve in 1915. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1923 and served as a captain in the cavalry reserve from 1942-59.

Wachtmeister was the owner and resident of Nääs manor farm located at the Långhalsen Lake. Wachtmeister was chairman of the board of Jönåkers häradsallmänning (Jönåker’s Commons) from 1933, of the Södermanland County Fire Insurance Company from 1946–63 and the Scandinavian Bank’s branch office in Nyköping from 1954–63. Moreover he held various positions in the municipality.

Wachtmeister married Signe Margaretha Wiel Huitfeldt in 1920. After she died just at the age of just 26, he married for a second time in 1929, to Adrienne Charlotte Thomasine Vilhelmsdotter De Geer. With his first wife, he had two sons, with the second another four sons. He was appointed Knight of the Order of Vasa and Knight of the Bulgarian Order of Civil Merit.