Th. Valentin Aass

Who was Th. Valentin Aass?

Thomas Valentin "Valla" Aass was a Norwegian sailor and civil servant in the foreign service.

He was born in Kristiania as a son of wholesaler Julius Aas and Hulda Mathilde Olsen. In 1923 he married lighthouse director's daughter Ingeborg Horn.

He finished his secondary education in 1905 and graduated from the Royal Frederick University with the cand.jur. degree in 1911. From 1912 to 1915 he was a deputy to the stipendiary magistrate of Fredrikstad. He competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics as a crew member of the Norwegian boat Taifun, which won the gold medal in the 8 metre class. He represented the Royal Norwegian Yacht Club.

In 1917 he was hired in the foreign service, as a secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was promoted to acting assistant secretary in 1920, then acting consul in Barcelona in 1921 and acting legation secretary in London in 1922. He was promoted to vice consul in the next year. In 1930 he was moved to the Norwegian legation in Stockholm as a secretary. He also had responsibility for Kaunas, Lithuania.