Bo Boustedt

Lieutenant General Bo Ivar Boustedt (22 August 1868 – 24 October 1939) was a Swedish Army officer. Boustedt's senior commands include regimental commander of Västernorrland Regiment and Uppland Infantry Regiment, chief of the Military Office of the Land Defence, commanding officer of the Eastern Army Division, Commandant General of Stockholm Garrison and Chief of the General Staff.

Early life Boustedt was born on 22 August 1868 in Fuxerna Parish, Älvsborg County, Sweden, to Captain Axel Boustedt and his wife Amanda Bergius. Boustedt was commissioned as an officer in Bohuslän Regiment in 1891 with the rank of underlöjtnant. He served as a teacher at Billströmska folkhögskolan in Tjörn from 1892 to 1898.

Boustedt was promoted to colonel in the army in 1917 and was appointed regimental commander of Västernorrland Regiment in 1918. Five years later, Boustedt was appointed regimental commander of Uppland Infantry Regiment. He was at the same time commander of the 9th Infantry Brigade. In 1926, Boustedt was appointed chief of the Military Office of the Land Defence. In 1928, he was promoted to major general and appointed brigade commander in the Western Army Division (Västra arméfördelningen). Boustedt then served as commanding officer of the Eastern Army Division (Östra arméfördelningen) and as Commandant General of Stockholm Garrison for a year before taking up the position as Chief of the General Staff in 1930. In Sweden during the 1930s, ideas were born about Swedish-Finnish military cooperation for Finland's (and thus also Sweden's) defense with, among other things, the Swedish field army (plus the air force's 100 fighter aircraft) under a League of Nations flag on the Karelian Isthmus, protect Finland against an expected Soviet attack. A driving force on the Swedish side was Chief of the General Staff Boustedt, who led reconnaissance on the isthmus and was one of the forces behind the opposition group Antingen – eller ("Either...or") within the Swedish Army. As Chief of the General Staff, Boustedt, also disapproved of plans to make propaganda films intended to boost patriotic motivation among the conscripts. In a letter to the Armé- och Marinfilm ("Army and Navy Film", AMF), written in 1931, Boustedt claimed that due to their individualistic national character, Swedish conscripts were suspicious of any manipulative efforts from the authorities. Only films that had no obvious intention of guiding the viewers’ thinking in a certain direction could have a genuine influence on Swedish audiences, he argued.

Boustedt was promoted to lieutenant general in 1933 and retired from the military the same year. until 18 May 1934, as well as chairman of the 1933 Flight Commission (1933 års flygkommission).

Personal life In 1917, he married Stina Håkansson (born 1881), the daughter of captain Axel Håkansson and Emma Tottie.

Dates of rank 20 November 1891 – Underlöjtnant 4 October 1895 – Lieutenant 4 October 1904 – Captain 26 April 1912 – Major 26 February 1915 – Lieutenant colonel 13 November 1917 – Colonel 1928 – Major general 1933 – Lieutenant general

Awards and decorations

Honours Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences (1913)