Historical Women - Elsa Andersson

Today is the birthday of Elsa Andersson, the first Swedish aviatrix, so I thought I should talk about her in my series about Historical Women.

Elsa Teresia Andersson was born in Strövelstorp outside of Ängelholm in Skåne, the southernmost province of Sweden on 27 April 1897. She was the daughter of a farmer and her mother Alma died giving birth to her little sister Stina in 1903. Her elder brother Sture later emigrated to America and her other brother Harald became an electrician.

Not far from her home was Ljungbyhed where the military had been practicing since the 17th century (Skåne belonged to Denmark up until 1658 and I have no idea if the place was used before that and that the Swedish army just took over or if it started afterward.). Among other things practiced there was flying which might have woken Elsa's interest in flying. At Ljungbyhed was also Thulins flygarskola (Thulin's flying school) where Elsa was accepted. She graduated in 1920.

After graduation, she wanted to learn how to use a parachute, but the only teacher and expert in Sweden, Raoul Thörnblad, refused to teach her. Because of this, Elsa moved to Berlin in 1921.

Unfortunately, she died in january 1922 at the age of 25 when she had problems releasing her parachute during a jump at Askersund in Sweden. In 1926, Svenska aeroklubben (the Swedish Aero Club) erected a monument to her honour at the site where she died. She was buried at the cementery in Ströveltorp.

In 1996, Swedish writer Jacques Werup wrote the book Den ofullbordade himlen about her life and life was also depicted in the Swedish film Så vit som snö in 2001.





Pictures  were borrowed here and here.