Thomas Heftye Thomas Thomassen Heftye ( 10 April 1860 – 19 September 1921 ) was a Norwegian military officer , engineer , sports official and politician for the Liberal Party . He is best known as the Norwegian Minister of Defence from June to October 1903 and March to April 1908 , as well as the director of Telegrafverket . He was killed in the Nidareid train disaster . Personal life . He was born in Vestre Aker as the son of banker Thomas Johannessen Heftye ( 1822 – 1886 ) and his wife Marie Jacobine Meyer ( 1826 – 1895 ) . He was a grandson of banker and politician Johannes Thomassen Heftye . His great - grandfather migrated to Norway from Hätzingen , Switzerland in the late eighteenth century , and founded the family company Thos . Joh . Heftye & Søn . He was also a grandnephew of Henrik Thomassen Heftye . In May 1888 he married Marie Berghaus ( 1869 – 1931 ) . Career . He finished his secondary education in 1878 , and took a military education in the following years . From 1880 he worked in the family company Thos . Joh . Heftye & Søn , but in 1885 he returned to the military , enrolling at the Norwegian Military Academy . In 1892 he took education as a telegrapher , and started working in the Norwegian Army engineer department instead of in the infantry . He also became involved in local politics in his native Aker municipality . He belonged to the Liberal Party , and was regarded as being on their radical wing . From 1900 to 1902 he served in Paris as military attaché of Sweden and Norway . On 9 June 1903 he was appointed as Minister of Defence as a part of the Blehr ' s First Cabinet . He held this position until 21 October 1903 , when the cabinet fell . In the same year he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel . He was assigned to work as a military consultant at the Council of State Division in Stockholm . He would provide valuable information in the buildup for the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905 , which the Liberal Party supported . In 1905 , then , he was made director of Telegrafverket , running the state monopoly on telegraph services . Telegrafverket is considered a predecessor of today ' s telecommunications company Telenor . Heftye served one term in Kristiania city council , from 1907 to 1910 . On 19 March 1908 , when the Knudsen ' s First Cabinet assumed office , he was appointed for his second term as Minister of Defence . He resigned already on 10 April the same year , because Prime Minister Gunnar Knudsen refused to seek a vote of confidence in Parliament , a form of investiture . This was a problematic question at that time , as Norway had made important steps towards parliamentarism , but not formalized the process with change of government . Former Prime Minister Christian Michelsen had asked for a vote of confidence following the 1906 general election , and survived . When he retired from politics in 1907 due to illness , Jørgen Løvland took over , but he was felled in 1908 . In early 1908 , the Liberal Party had evicted 24 legislators who supported Christian Michelsen and the endeavors of the Coalition Party ( later leading to the creation of the Liberal Left Party ) , and hence , when Knudsen took over , he had no way of achieving a parliamentary majority . In that situation he could not expect to survive a vote of confidence . It has been said that parliamentarism works best in a two - party system , which Norway did not have at that time , and has never had since , although the Coalition Party tried to implement it . On the other hand , Knudsen and his cabinet resigned following the 1909 general election , which the Liberal Party lost . Such an action is not required by law , but if not carried through , the cabinet would most likely face a vote of no confidence . Despite the disagreement in 1908 , Heftye and Knudsen were not estranged . Knudsen would later sit as Prime Minister from 1913 to 1920 , and he used Heftye as an arbitrator in both the national wages board and in irregular labour conflicts . Previously , during his time as telegraph director , Heftye had started the institution of non - legal wiretapping — a method which was later used in labour conflicts . He was also an international arbitrator from 1919 to 1920 when he sat on the Slesvig Commission , preparing the partition into Northern and Southern Slesvig in 1920 . Heftye was also involved in sports . He was a member of the Norwegian Olympic Committee at the 1906 and 1908 Summer Olympics . He was also Norway ' s member of the International Olympic Committee from 1907 to 1908 . He also chaired the " Landsforeningen for Reiselivet " from 1912 to 1918 and the Norwegian Trekking Association from 1918 to 1921 . Death . The Dovre Railway Line was officially opened in September 1921 . On 19 September 1921 , tragedy struck as two trains collided right outside the Nidareid tunnel in Trondhjem . Heftye was killed together with architect Erik Glosimodt and several others . Awards and legacy . Heftye was decorated with as a Knight , First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St . Olav in 1903 . He was upgraded to Commander , First Class in 1912 and received the Grand Cross in 1915 . He was also a Commander of the Danish Order of the Dannebrog , a Knight of the French Légion d ' honneur as well as other foreign orders of knighthood .