Edvard Hagerup Bull

Background

Edvard Hagerup Bull was born in Bergen as the son of Colonel Jens Munthe Bull (1815–1905) and his wife Johanne Margrethe Hagerup (1817–1888). His brother Schak Bull was an architect, and his maternal grandfather was politician Edvard Hagerup. He was also a nephew of composer Ole Bull and architect Georg Andreas Bull, and cousin of composer Edvard Grieg.He took his secondary education at Bergen Cathedral School in 1872, enrolled as a student and graduated with the cand.jur. degree in 1876. He was hired as an attorney in the law firm of Emil Stang, and worked there from 1877 to 1879.

Career

In July 1879 he was hired in the Ministry of the Interior, moving to the Ministry of Finance the next year. Here, he was promoted to assistant secretary in 1882 and deputy under-secretary of State in 1888. He had been acting deputy under-secretary since 1887. He stayed in this position until 1893, except for the period between 6 June 1889 and 7 July 1889, when he was acting Minister of Finance.

In October 1893 he became acting assessor of the Supreme Court. In January 1895 this position was made permanent. He stayed in this position until January 1918, except for a period between 1905 and February 1907.

In March 1905, when the Michelsen's Cabinet assumed office, Bull had been appointed a member of the Council of State Division in Stockholm. He left on 6 June as the Union between Sweden and Norway was unilaterally dissolved by Norway. Instead, Bull was brought home to the newly independent state of Norway to become Minister of Justice and the Police. He stayed in this position until 26 November the same year, when he was appointed Minister of Finance and Customs. He left after slightly less than a year, on 6 November 1906. He was preceded by Christian Michelsen and succeeded by Abraham Berge, both of whom were Prime Ministers at one point.

Having left the Supreme Court in 1918, he later returned to politics to serve as Minister of Finance and Customs in the first cabinet Bahr Halvorsen. This cabinet existed exactly for one year, from 21 June 1920 to 21 June 1921. Again, he was preceded and succeeded by two persons who also served as Prime Ministers, Gunnar Knudsen and Otto Blehr respectively.

In addition, Bull was elected to the Norwegian Parliament for four terms. In 1903 he was elected to serve the term 1904–1906 as the fifth representative of Akershus Amt. He was not re-elected in 1906, but he returned in 1910 for the constituency of Aker. He was then re-elected on two consecutive occasions. For the last three terms he was the leader of the Conservative Party parliamentary group.

Bull was a member of several boards and committees, both public and private. He was chairman of the board of Spareskillingsbanken from 1899 to 1928, vice board chairman of Norges Bank from 1900 to 1912 and board member of the publishing house Gyldendal Norsk Forlag from 1922. In addition, was the first chairman of the Nordic cooperation organization Foreningen Norden from 1919 to 1926.

Personal life

In June 1880 he married Theodora Kraft (1855–1924). Both their son Sverre Hagerup Bull and their grandson Edvard Hagerup Bull became composers. Their daughter Johanne Margrethe Hagerup Bull was married to Norwegian diplomat Niels Christian Ditleff.He resided in the neighborhood of Jar in Bærum in his later life.