Fredrik Nyström

Fredrik Nyström was the son of a wholesaler and shipowner on the island of Gotland. He joined the Vaxholm’s Marine Corps as a volunteer in 1899 and completed an officer’s training in 1901. He was transferred to the Coastal Artillery where he was promoted to lieutenant. He began his studies at the Naval Military Highschool in 1908. Nyström served at the Naval Administration’s Mine Division from 1911 to 1917, temporarily teaching at the Naval Military High. As a navy captain he went into reserve state in 1917 where he was promoted to major in 1935.

He entered a new career as Chief Executive Officer of Slite Cement och Kalk AB in Gotland, holding this position from 1917 to 1932. Subsequently, he became manager of the Visby cement factory (1932-41). Simultaneously he held positions as chairman or member of the board of the Slite-Roma Railway, of Sveriges Handelsbanken’s branch in Visby, of System AB in Visby, of the Slite municipal middle school and of various other companies and organizations.

As a local politician, Nyström was a member of Othem’s municipal council (1924-32), and later of Visby’s city council (1935-47), and the Gotland county council (1939–46). In these positions he was chairman and member of several boards and committees in the field of infrastructure. Nyström married Selma Serafia Nilsson in 1920. After the death of his first wife, he remarried the German-born Inga Britta Pålsson in 1956. He was interested in sports and represented Sweden in small-bore rifle and pistol shooting at the Stockholm Olympics in 1912. At the Baltic Games in Malmö in 1914 he won three gold medals with the small-bore rifle.