Ole Thomesen

Ole Thomesen (12 November 1817 – 8 October 1905) was a Norwegian jurist and politician for the Liberal Party. A member of the Norwegian Parliament for five terms, he became known as a radical and liberal politician. He spent his professional career as a jurist working in various parts of Eastern Norway.

He was born in Kragerø as the son of merchant Claus Thomesen and his wife Inger Pedersen. His older brother Thomes Thomesen was a merchant and politician. Through him Ole Thomesen was an uncle of feminist, journalist and politician Fernanda Nissen. Another niece, painter Sophie Marie Stoltenberg Thomesen, married painter Erik Werenskiold. In March 1850 he married Johanne Jacobine Aalborg (1824–1893).

Ole Thomesen attended his early school in Kragerø, but then moved to Christiania, as he wanted an academic education instead of becoming a merchant. He took the examen artium in 1837 and the cand.jur. degree in 1843. Then, after half a year as a junior solicitor in Vågå he returned to Kragerø. However in 1848 he returned to Vågå as acting attorney. He was later a junior solicitor in Lillehammer before moving to Ringsaker in 1853 and Faaberg in 1855, where he worked as an attorney and farmer. He was also involved when a Norwegian-owned (as opposed to British-owned) steamship company trafficking the lake Mjøsa was established in 1853. As the company needed new ships, one of the ships that was ordered was Skibladner, and Thomesen personally signed the contract for building the ship. Built in Motala, Skibladner became operational in 1856, and is still in operation as of 2009^[ref]. The encyclopedia Store norske leksikon reports that Skibladner is probably the second oldest paddle steamer in the world, behind the Romanian Tudor Vladimirescu.

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