Vetlesen Leif

Norwegian sailor, political worker, organisational worker, and writer who at the age of 17 went to sea where he advanced to sailor and worked at numerous ships during WW II. He had sympathies with the communists but swapped to the Labour Party after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. After the war he launched a campaign for better treatment of war sailors, in 1947. This work of his was taken up and continued by Thore Horve during the 1960s and led to an ex gratia monetary payment to sailors in 1972. From 1982 to 1985 Vetlesen was secretary-general of Amnesty Internationals branch in Norway. In 1997 he was awarded the Kings Medal of Merit (gold) for his tireless work for those who had fought at sea during WW II. Vetlesen died on 18 May 2003 in Oslo, Norway. He was 81. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less