Personal life

He was born in 1919. His father Ingvald Smith-Kielland

Ingvald Smith-Kielland

Ingvald Marillus Emil Smith-Kielland was a Norwegian military officer, diplomat, sports official and royal servant....

 served as chamberlain and court marshal from 1949 to 1955 and lord chamberlain

Lord Chamberlain of Norway

The Lord Chamberlain of Norway is a traditional officer of the Royal Household of Norway. The title was introduced in 1866...

 from 1955 to 1966, under the kings Haakon VII

Haakon VII of Norway

Haakon VII , known as Prince Carl of Denmark until 1905, was the first king of Norway after the 1905 dissolution of the personal union with Sweden. He was a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg...

 and Olav V

Olav V of Norway

Olav V was the king of Norway from 1957 until his death. A member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, Olav was born in the United Kingdom as the son of King Haakon VII of Norway and Queen Maud of Norway...

 (from 1957). He was also the nephew of painter Per Smith-Kielland

Per Smith-Kielland

Per Axel Smith-Kielland was a Norwegian painter.He was born in Kristiania, and was a brother of diplomat Ingvald Smith-Kielland. He studied under Christian Krohg at the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts from 1914 to 1915, and became an accomplished painter, but fell ill as early as 1918, and...

.

Career

Ingvald M. Smith-Kielland was first hired in the Royal Court in 1963, as an aide-de-camp. He became court marshal in 1966, and was promoted to lord chamberlain in 1985. He succeeded Odd Grønvold

Odd Grønvold

Odd Grønvold was a Norwegian royal servant.He was born in Kristiania, and was a grandnephew of the former private secretary to King Haakon VII of Norway, Hans Aimar Mow Grønvold. He was hired as secretary to Crown Prince Olav of Norway in 1954, and when Olav ascended the monarch's throne in 1957,...

 in both positions. When King Olav V died in early 1991, Smith-Kielland saw the opportunity to retire and was succeeded by Kaare Langlete

Kaare Langlete

Kaare Langlete is a retired Norwegian military officer and royal servant.He was born and grew up in Trondheim. He started a military career at the age of nineteen, and among others he served for the United Nations at the Suez Canal in 1957...

. In the beginning of the year, the entire Court of the Norwegian Royal Family comprised as little as nine people: Smith-Kielland, Langlete, Gunerius Flakstad, Ingegjerd Løvenskiold

Ingegjerd Løvenskiold

Ingegjerd Løvenskiold is the head servant at the Palace at Oslo. She studied in France and after she married Harald Løvenskiold, she worked in the restaurant and modernisation of the buildings at Løvenskiold-Vækerø. From 1984, she worked at Bærum Verks Senter...

, Magne Hagen

Magne Hagen

Magne Hagen is a retired Norwegian royal servant.Hagen started with a military career, and held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He was first hired in the Royal Court in 1974, as an aide-de-camp of King Olav V. He became private secretary in 1979. When Olav V died in 1991 and was replaced with...

 and Barbara Iliff.

In June 1991 Smith-Kielland was decorated with the Grand Cross

Grand Cross

The phrase Grand Cross is used to denote the highest grade in many orders of knighthood. Sometimes the holders of the highest grade are referred to "knights grand cross" or just "grand crosses"; in other cases the actual insignia itself is called "the grand cross".Alternatively, in some other...

 of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav. In 1994, Verdens Gang

Verdens Gang

Verdens Gang , generally known under the abbreviation VG, is a Norwegian tabloid newspaper...

noted that only seven non-royal Norwegians—all men—held the Grand Cross: Ingvald M. Smith-Kielland, Folke Hauger Johannessen

Folke Hauger Johannessen

Folke Hauger Johannessen was a Norwegian military officer, an admiral of the Royal Norwegian Navy. He served as Chief of Defence of Norway from 1964 to 1972....

, Herman Fredrik Zeiner-Gundersen

Herman Fredrik Zeiner-Gundersen

Herman Fredrik Zeiner-Gundersen was a Norwegian military officer, a general in the Norwegian Army. He served as Chief of Defence of Norway from 1972 to 1977.He was Chairman of the NATO Military Committee from 1977 to 1980....

, Rolv Ryssdal

Rolv Ryssdal

Rolv Einar Rasmussen Ryssdal was a Norwegian judge.From 1969 to 1984 he was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court...

, Thor Heyerdahl

Thor Heyerdahl

Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer with a background in zoology and geography. He became notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition, in which he sailed by raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands...

, Per Aabel

Per Aabel

Per Pavels Aabel was a respected and honored Norwegian actor, artist, dancer, choreographer and instructor.-Biography:...

 and Helge Ingstad

Helge Ingstad

Helge Marcus Ingstad was a Norwegian explorer. After mapping some Norse settlements, Ingstad and his wife Anne Stine, an archaeologist, in 1960 found remnants of a Viking settlement in L'Anse aux Meadows in the Province of Newfoundland in Canada...

. Smith-Kielland's father, who died in 1984, also received the Grand Cross.