# Hugo von Heidenstam

August Werner Hugo von Heidenstam (29 April 1884 – 27 July 1966) was a Swedish diplomat and engineer. In 1910 von Heidenstam was appointed chief engineer of the Shanghai Commission for Port and River and worked there until 1926. Meanwhile, he was a member of several Chinese flood control commissions, and also worked as a consulting engineer. He returned to Stockholm in 1930 and was a partner of the Swedish Hydraulic Engineering Company (AB Vattenbyggnadsbyrån) from 1930 to 1936 and director of Svenska entreprenad AB from 1933 to 1936. During the period 1936-1942 he was the Swedish envoy in Tehran and Baghdad. He has in several publications dealt with Chinese engineering issues.

## Early life

von Heidenstam was born on 29 April 1884 in Karlskrona, Sweden, the son of major Adolf von Heidenstam and his wife countess Hedda (née Cronstedt). He passed mogenhetsexamen in 1901 and after graduating from the Royal Institute of Technology in 1905, he became a reserve officer at the Fortification (Fortifikationen) the same year.

## Career

von Heidenstam worked as an engineer at the Swedish Hydraulic Engineering Company (AB Vattenbyggnadsbyrån) in Stockholm from 1905 to 1908 and was an engineer in the United States from 1908 to 1909 and in Shanghai, China from 1909 to 1910. He was chief engineer at the China International Commission for the Shanghai Port and River from 1910 to 1926.
It was back in 1907, when the Swedish Hydraulic Engineering Company formed in association with interested outsiders the Swedish Asiatic Consulting Engineering Company in order to make advances in the Far East. The pioneers were P. G. Hornell, Carl Schmidt and Hugo von Heidenstam. It turned out, however, that independent consulting engineers was unable to assert itself in competition with the financially strong construction companies that dominated the state and municipal construction activity in China and Japan, but von Heidenstam's expert entries in China's then current water issues resulted in his appointment as chief engineer at the international flood control department in Shanghai. Several Swedish engineers gathered around him as assistants in the implementation of major engineering works in the inlet to Shanghai. One of von Heidenstam's endeavors was dredging the river to make it navigable for large ships. von Heidenstam was a member of the Chinese government's committee on regulation of the Yangtze River and of the Zhili Province rivers and more from 1917 to 1928.
During the years 1918-1922 the Swedish Hydraulic Engineering Company conducted, in cooperation with von Heidenstam, extensive communications technical studies on the expansion of Shanghai's port and its importance for world trade. The result was the establishment of an international committee for the issue's further treatment. The chairman of the committee was von Heidenstam, and among its members were P. G. Hörnell and F. Palmer, the latter was the head of the engineering firm Rendel, Palmer & Tritton in London. The connection between these three men led in 1925 to an agreement on future cooperation between the Swedish Hydraulic Engineering Company and Palmer with von Heidenstam as common representative in London.
The year after he became head of the Swedish Hydraulic Engineering Company in London which he was until 1930. von Heidenstam was then co-owner of the Swedish Hydraulic Engineering Company in Stockholm and consulting engineer there from 1930 to 1936. von Heidenstam was Sweden's representative in the International Oder Commission from 1930 to 1937 and in the League of Nations Advisory Commission for Communications from 1930 to 1931 and the same for the control of the opium trade from 1934 to 1936. von Heidenstam became a lieutenant in the Road and Waterway Construction Service Corps in 1911 and was later promoted to captain in 1918, to major in 1928 and to lieutenant colonel in 1936. He was the Swedish envoy in Tehran, Iran as well as in Baghdad, Iraq from 1936 to 1942.

## Other work

von Heidenstam was chairman of the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers' (Svenska Teknologföreningen) Department of Civil Engineering from 1933 to 1935, member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in London and the American Society of Civil Engineers as well as board member of the Institute of Swedish Foreign Service (Institutet för Svensk Utlandstjänst) from 1934 to 1936. He was the Swedish representative at the Permanent International Association of Navigation Congresses in Brussels from 1947 to 1957 (honorary member in 1958).
von Heidenstam was chairman of the Association for Inland Waterways (Föreningen för inre vattenvägar) in Stockholm from 1949 to 1959 (honorary member in 1959) and chairman of the board of AB Vägförbättringar in 1942. He was chairman of the Swedish-Iranian Association (Svensk-iranska föreningen) in 1949 and the Swedish-English Association (Svensk-engelska föreningen) in Stockholm from 1955 to 1957 (vice chairman from 1945 to 1955, honorary member in 1957). von Heidenstam was also vice chairman of the Swedes Worldwide Association (Utlandssvenskarnas förening) in Stockholm and chairman of its working committee in 1944.

## Personal life

On 31 May 1917 he married the baroness Eva Margareta Gyllenkrok (1892–1982), the daughter of Navy commander, baron Axel Thure Christian Gyllenkrok and Elin Emma Ulrika Frick. He was the father of Axel Gerhard Hugo (born 1918), Hedda Margareta (born 1921), Eva Jeanette (1923–2003) and Carl Werner (born 1928). von Heidenstam died on 27 July 1966 and was buried at Åkers Cemetery in Åkers styckebruk.

## Awards and decorations

von Heidenstam's awards:
* Commander First Class of the Order of the Polar Star (1938-11-15)
* Knight of the Order of St John in Sweden
* Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog (1938-08-23)
* Grand Cross of the Order of Homayoun
* Order of the German Eagle with Star
* First Class of the Order of the Two Rivers
* Third Class of the Order of the Precious Brilliant Golden Grain
* Knight of the Order of the Polar Star (1922-11-25)