Theodor Leonard Findahl was born in Tvedestrand in Aust-Agder, Norway. He was awarded a philological degree at the University of Oslo (1917). He worked as teacher until 1939, and from then as a foreign correspondent for the newspaper "Aftenposten". He is particularly remembered for his reports from Germany on 5 and 7 April 1940, when he was a news correspondent in Berlin. These reports warned about the German attack on Norway, but the message was not taken seriously by the Norwegian Commanding Admiral.