Eric Virgin

Major General Eric Virgin (18 May 1876 – 12 May 1950) was a Swedish Air Force officer. Originally a Swedish Army officer, Virgin became commanding officer of the Svea Logistic Corps (T 1) in 1926 and was appointed Inspector of the Swedish Army Service Troops the year after. In 1931 he was appointed Chief of the Air Force for the newly established Swedish Air Force. Virgin left the position as major general in 1934 to become advisor to the Emperor of Abyssinia. He left Abyssinia two days before the outbreak of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War in 1935; back in Sweden, he was placed in the Swedish Air Force reserve, where he remained until 1947. Virgin died three years later.

Early life Virgin was born on 18 May 1876 in Skövde, Sweden, the son of colonel Ivar Virgin and his wife Hedvig (née af Klint).

Career He was commissioned as an officer in Småland Grenadier Corps (I 7) in 1898 with the rank of underlöjtnant and attended the Royal Central Gymnastics Institute from 1899 to 1901 and the Royal Swedish Army Staff College from 1902 to 1904.

Virgin and captain Viking Tamm as well as four other military officers (the lieutenants Nils Bouveng, Arne Thorburn, Gustaf Heüman and Anders Nyblom ) entered together into the Abyssinian service to organize the country's only military school for the training of Abyssinian officers. A Swedish military academy for cadets was established in Holeta Genet under captain Tamm who, with his staff, stayed on in Abyssinia after the outbreak of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War despite pressure by the Swedish government to return. Virgin, who in Abyssinia was called "the White Emperor" and "Italy's enemy No. 1"

Other work Major General Virgin (third from right) in Addis Ababa in 1934.

Virgin was chairman of the Military Association K.H.S. from 1918 to 1923 and secretary of Military Literature Association (Militärlitteraturföreningen) from 1914 to 1918. He was also an expert for the reorganization of the Road and Waterway Construction Service Corps in 1924, for the drafting of war regulations for the Swedish Air Force in 1928 and chairman of the experts drafting the new field service regulations for the Swedish Army in 1929.

Personal life In 1902 he married Olga Ewerlöf (1880–1976), and Olga Marianne (born 1908).

Landstormen Silver Medal (Landstormens silvermedalj) Swedish Red Cross Gold Medal (Svenska Röda korsets guldmedalj)

Foreign

Austrian Red Cross Badge of Honor for Officers with war decoration