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Fredrik Riben

{{Short description|Swedish Navy officer}}

{{Infobox military person

| name = Fredrik Riben

| image = Fredrik_Riben.jpg

| image_size =

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| native_name =

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| birth_name = Carl Fredrik Wilhelm Riben

| nickname = "Calle Riben"

| birth_date = {{birth date|1868|5|13|df=y}}

| birth_place = Håbo-Tibble, Sweden

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1950|8|3|1868|5|13|df=y}}

| death_place = Uddevalla, Sweden

| placeofburial = Sandsborgskyrkogården

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| allegiance =

| branch = Swedish Navy

| serviceyears = 1889–1933

| rank = Vice Admiral

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| commands = {{bulleted list|{{HSwMS|Hugin|24|6}}|{{HSwMS|Fylgia}}|{{HSwMS|Sverige}}|Royal Swedish Naval Academy|Military Office of the Minister for Naval Affairs|Coastal Fleet|Stockholm Naval Station}}

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Vice Admiral Carl Fredrik Wilhelm Riben (13 May 1868 – 3 August 1950) was a senior Swedish Navy officer. Riben served as head of the Royal Swedish Naval Academy (1918–1921), of the Military Office of the Minister for Naval Affairs (1921–1923), as Commander-in-Chief of the Coastal Fleet (1923–1925) as well as of Stockholm Naval Station (1926–1933). He also served as president of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences (1933–1935) and chairman of the Directorate of the Swedish Nobility Foundation (1940–1944).

Early life

Riben was born on 13 May 1868 at Löfsta farm in {{ill|Håbo-Tibble socken|sv}}, Uppsala County, Sweden,{{cite book |url=https://runeberg.org/nfcq/0698.html |editor-last=Westrin |editor-first=Theodor |editor-last2=Fahlstedt |editor-first2=Eugène |editor-last3=Söderberg |editor-first3=Verner |title=Nordisk familjebok: konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi |edition=Ny, rev. och rikt ill. uppl. |year=1925 |volume=37 |publisher=Nordisk familjeboks förl. |location=Stockholm |language=sv |id={{LIBRIS|8072220}} |page=1291}} the son of Axel Riben and his wife Rosa Malm. He was the brother of {{ill|Karl-Axel Riben|sv}} (1867–1934), the head of the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm.{{cite book |url=https://runeberg.org/smok/6/0301.html |editor-last=Dahl |editor-first=Torsten |editor-last2=Bohman |editor-first2=Nils |title=Svenska män och kvinnor: biografisk uppslagsbok. 6 P-Sheldon |year=1949 |publisher=Bonnier |location=Stockholm |language=sv |id={{LIBRIS|53805}} |page=273}} Riben devoted himself to the naval profession from his earliest youth and already sailed in 1882 as an aspirant aboard the corvette Norrköping. In autumn 1883, he was accepted as a cadet and went through the then six-year Royal Swedish Naval Academy with summer expeditions on the corvette {{HSwMS|Saga||2}} and the frigate Vanadis.{{cite journal |url=https://www.koms.se/content/uploads/2014/04/TiS-Nr-12-1950.pdf |journal=Tidskrift i sjöväsendet |title=Minnesteckningar |first=Marc |last=Giron |year=1950 |number=12 |location=Carlskrona |language=sv |id={{SELIBR|8258455}} |pages=565–568}}

Career

=Military career=

Riben was commissioned as a naval officer in the Swedish Navy in 1889 and was promoted to sub-lieutenant in 1891. In the years 1890-1891, he served on the corvette Freja and during his time as a subaltern officer was otherwise used for station and shipyard duty as well as sea tours, among other things, on the coastal defence ship Göta and the corvette Norrköping. Riben was a cadet officer at the Royal Swedish Naval Academy from 1896 to 1900 when he was promoted to lieutenant and then served in the Fleet Staff from 1900 to 1901. Since Riben in 1901 completed his qualification as director of a navigation school, he was between 1901 and 1903 director of the naval instrument and nautical chart repository in Stockholm as well as between 1903 and 1909 teacher of navigation, trigonometry, nautical surveying and preliminary drawing at the Royal Swedish Naval Academy with the result of yearly recurring summer service as navigation officer on cadet ships. He served in the Nautical Department of the Royal Swedish Naval Materiel Administration from 1905 to 1912 when he was promoted to lieutenant commander. In 1911 he served as 1st flag lieutenant (flaggadjutant) to the Commander-in-Chief of the Coastal Fleet. Riben was ordered to undergo torpedo training in Karlskrona and in the summer of 1912 was given command of the then equipped destroyer division, at the same time commander of the destroyer {{HSwMS|Hugin|24|2}}.

In the years 1912-1914, Riben held the position as head of the naval schools in Karlskrona, but due to the worrying political situation in the world and the resulting demand for increased preparedness, he came to be largely deployed during this time in his mobilization position as head of one of the Coastal Fleet's destroyer divisions. He thus served as destroyer division commander in the so-called Winter Coastal Fleet (Vinterkustflottan) in 1912–1913 based on the destroyer {{HSwMS|Wale||2}} and assumed the same command during the mobilization in August 1914, which he left the following year to take command of the armored cruiser {{HSwMS|Fylgia||2}}. Riben then served as head of the naval schools in Karlskrona from 1912 to 1914 and was promoted to commander in 1916. Riben was head of the Royal Swedish Naval Materiel Administration's Nautical Department from 1916 to 1918. Under this time, he received the honorable command as the first commander of the then completed coastal defence ship {{HSwMS|Sverige||2}}, which in 1917 set out on its first expedition. He served as head of the Royal Swedish Naval Academy from 1918 to 1921 and in 1919 he was promoted to captain and served the same year as commander of the coastal defence ship division based on Oden.

File:HMS Fylgia 1921 LOC matpc 14305.jpg Fylgia during the early years of World War I]]

Riben was head of the Military Office of the Minister for Naval Affairs (Sjöförsvarets kommandoexpedition) from 1921 to 1923 when he was promoted to rear admiral. He served as Commander-in-Chief of the Coastal Fleet from 1923 to 1925. His time as Commander-in-Chief of the Coastal Fleet was for this Sweden's foremost naval force a period of innovation and development, in that the rules for the Coastal Fleet's tactical behavior were tested and shaped, which were conditioned by the three new Sverige-class coastal defence ships entering service as the core of the Coastal Fleet. Riben then served as commander-in-chief of Stockholm Naval Station from 1926 to 1933, during which time he was promoted to vice admiral in 1930. Riben retired from active duty and entered the reserves in 1933.

=Other work=

Riben was an adviser on the organization of the central defence administration in 1921, chairman of the regulations advisers (reglementssakkunniga) in 1922, member of the League of Nations' permanent advisory military commission from 1922 to 1926, military member of the Supreme Court of Sweden from 1925 to 1933 and adviser assistant in the League of Nations' preparatory disarmament commission from 1926 to 1930.

Even after his retirement from active duty, Riben was keenly interested in his old service branch and when the naval association {{ill|Flottans män|sv}} was formed in 1935, he made himself available as its chairman and remained as such for ten years. He was elected chairman of the Directorate of the Swedish Nobility Foundation in 1941 succeeding Count {{ill|Henning Wachtmeister|sv}} who died the year before.{{cite news |newspaper=Dagens Nyheter |title=? |date=21 June 1941 |page=12 |language=sv}} Riben resigned four years later.{{cite book |url=https://runeberg.org/vemarvem/sthlm45/0701.html |editor1-last=Harnesk |editor1-first=Paul |date=1945 |title=Vem är vem? |volume=D. 1, Stockholmsdelen |trans-title=Who's Who? |location=Stockholm |publisher=Vem är vem bokförlag |language=sv |id={{SELIBR|8198269}} |page=685}}

Personal life

Riben married in 1892 to Hildegard Elisabeth Neumüller (1868–1899), the daughter of brewery owner {{ill|Friedrich Neumüller|sv}} and his wife Emma Reuszner.{{cite book |url=https://runeberg.org/vemardet/1945/0891.html |title=Vem är det: svensk biografisk handbok. 1945 |trans-title=Who is it: Swedish biographical handbook. 1945 |year=1945 |location=Stockholm |publisher=Norstedt |language=sv |id={{SELIBR|8261511}} |pages=891-892}} They had five children: Maud (1893–1932), Daisy (1894–1982), Margit (1896–1986), Sture (1898–1982), and Harriet (born and died 1899).{{cite web |url=https://www.neumuller.org/slaktgrenen-elisabeth-riben/ |website=www.neumuller.org |title=Släktgrenen Elisabeth Riben |access-date=14 June 2023 |language=sv}}

In 1903, Riben married Emma Catharina (Karin) Piehl (1880–1932),{{cite web |url=https://svenskagravar.se/gravsatt/6b32ccb3-911c-4bc4-9d1a-eef103827cf4 |website=www.svenskagravar.se |title=Riben, Carl Fredrik Wilhelm |access-date=14 June 2023 |language=sv}} the daughter of the brewery director Carl Gustaf Piehl and Sofia Neumüller.{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/Presentation.aspx?id=8864 |publisher=National Archives of Sweden |encyclopedia=Svenskt biografiskt lexikon |title=Neumüller, släkt |author=H G-m |year=1987–1989 |volume=26 |page=569 |access-date=2023-06-14 |language=sv}} They had three children: Sven (1906–1990), Dagmar (born 1907), and Karin (1914–2007).

Death

Riben died on 26 April 1958 in Uddevalla on a temporary visit there. He was interred on 15 August 1950 at Sandsborgskyrkogården in Stockholm.

Dates of rank

Awards and decorations

=Swedish=

=Foreign=

Honours

References

{{Reflist}}

{{S-start}}

{{S-mil}}

{{succession box

| title = Royal Swedish Naval Academy

| years = 1918–1921

| before = Carl Sparre

| after = Fabian Tamm

}}

{{succession box

| title = Military Office of the Minister for Naval Affairs

| years = 1921–1923

| before = Otto Lybeck

| after = Harald Åkermark

}}

{{succession box

| title = Coastal Fleet

| years = 1923–1925

| before = Carl Alarik Wachtmeister

| after = Otto Lybeck

}}

{{succession box

| title = Stockholm Naval Station

| years = 1926–1933

| before = Carl Alarik Wachtmeister

| after = Charles de Champs

}}

{{s-npo|pro}}

{{succession box

| title = {{no wrap|President of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences}}

| years = 1933–1935

| before = Carl Gustaf Hammarskjöld

| after = Ludvig Hammarskiöld

}}

{{succession box

| title = Chairman of the Directorate of the Swedish Nobility Foundation

| years = 1940–1944

| before = Henning Wachtmeister

| after = Eric Virgin

}}

{{S-end}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riben, Fredrik}}

Category:1868 births

Category:1950 deaths

Category:Swedish Navy vice admirals

Category:People from Upplands-Bro Municipality

Category:Members of the Royal Swedish Society of Naval Sciences

Category:Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences

Category:Commanders Grand Cross of the Order of the Sword

Category:Knights of the Order of the Polar Star