Kristiansen Collection

Collection includes Soldiers Service & Pay Book, Norwegian military medals, dog tag, ID card and a newspaper cutting.   Arnljot was born in Bergen, Norway in 1903. He worked as a Shipping and Sales Clerk based in San Francisco, California. After the Nazi invasion of Norway on 8 April, the leader of the Norwegian National Socialist Party, Vidkun Quisling, proclaimed himself leader and ordered the armed forces to stop fighting. The Norwegian merchant fleet was still at sea and it was told to go to neutral or German harbours, but instead every ship sailed to Allied ports, and Arnljot arrived in Bristol on 23 July 1940.   Altogether 3,000 men came to Britain, from all corners of the globe, including Africa, the Middle East and South America. Many, including Arnljot, were sent to Dumfries, and when the Norwegian government declared war on Germany a few weeks later, they enlisted as soldiers. At one time there were a thousand men and over a hundred women training in the town. Arnljot became a Sergeant in the Norwegian Army. He married Mary (“Nellie”)Farquhar of 13 Galloway Street, Dumfries, on 20 June 1941. When the war was over the couple settled in Bergen, where Nellie was an active member of the town's Burns Club.