John A. Gade

John A. Gade, the first U.S. Commissioner to the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia (Photo from All My Born Days)

John Allyne Gade was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on February 10, 1875. Gade grew up on his father's estate known as Frogner Manor near Kristiania (Oslo), the current home of the Oslo City Museum. Gade's father Gerhard was a Norwegian diplomat who would later serve as the U.S. Consular Agent in Oslo after his marriage to Helen Allyne of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Educated in Norway, France, and Germany where he became fluent in French and German in addition to his native English and Norwegian, Gade went to college at Harvard in order to study architecture.

After his graduation in 1896, Gade worked for many years as a commercial architect in New York City, first with the firm of McKim, Mead, & White until setting up Foster, Gade, & Graham. He shared his love of architecture with others by writing several books including The Cathedrals of Spain (1911). Gade married Ruth Sibley of Rochester, New York on November 18, 1907. The couple would have three children – a son named Frederik and two daughters named Margaret and Allyne.

When the Great War began in August 1914, Gade decided that he must do something to help the Allied cause. As neither the U.S. nor Norway was at war, Gade joined Herbert Hoover's U.S. Commission for Relief in Belgium where he helped deliver food aid to the German-occupied country. Eventually, the Germans blacklisted and then expelled Gade for helping the Belgians in other ways beyond just providing them with food. Gade returned to the U.S. right before it entered the Great War in April 1917.

With the United States at war, Captain Roger Welles – the Director of U.S. Naval Intelligence – commissioned the multi-lingual Gade as a U.S. Navy lieutenant. Posted first to Oslo as the Assistant U.S. Naval Attaché, Lieutenant Gade soon transferred to Copenhagen where he served as the U.S. Naval Attaché. While working in Denmark, Lt. Gade provided the Allies with vital information on German submarine movements that helped achieve victory in the Battle for the Atlantic. For his work during the war, Gade was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander and was decorated with Belgium's Cross of the Crown, Denmark's Order of Danebrog, Norway's Order of St. Olaf, Sweden's Orders of the Sword, of Vasa, and of the Legion of Honor, in addition to the U.S. Navy Cross.

After the November 1918 Armistice, Lt. Commander Gade went on assignment to Finland where he met with the new government including the Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Army, Gustaf Mannerheim. For successfully advocating Allied recognition of Finland's independence from Russia at the Paris Peace Conference, Lt. Commander Gade received Finland's Order of the White Rose.

On his way to Finland in April 1919, Lt. Commander Gade conducted a fact-finding trip to Estonia and Latvia at the request of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace in Paris. After returning to the United States via Paris, the U.S. Department of State asked Lt. Commander Gade to give a talk on the situation in the Baltic region while the U.S. Government debated formal recognition of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

At the request of Assistant Secretary of State William Phillips, the U.S. Navy detailed Lt. Commander Gade to the U.S. State Department, which appointed him to serve as the first U.S. Commissioner to the three Baltic States in October 1919. Arriving in Estonia in November 1919, Commissioner Gade proceeded to neighboring Latvia where he set up his base of operations. During his tenure, Commissioner Gade served as the U.S. Government's liaison to the new Estonian Government, the Estonian Army, and the Russian White Army of the Northwest.

For his work in Estonia during its War of Independence, Commissioner Gade received Estonia's Cross of Liberty First Class after the signing of the peace Treaty of Tartu in February 1920. The Russian White Army of the Northwest awarded him with the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Stanislaus for his work. In May 1920, career U.S. Foreign Service Officer Evan E. Young replaced Gade as the new U.S. Commissioner to the three Baltic States. Gade returned to Washington to complete his State Department assignment on the Russia Desk.

Going back to civilian life as a Wall Street investment banker with White, Weld, & Co., Gade continued traveling regularly to Europe. After meeting with Under Secretary of State William Phillips again in 1933, Gade took up his earlier career as a U.S. Naval Attaché, serving under his Harvard classmate David Morris, the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium at the time. After completing his tour in Brussels, Gade worked as the U.S. Naval Attaché in first Holland and then Portugal, where he was promoted to the rank of Commander and then Captain in the U.S. Navy Reserves.

Gade's U.S. Government career ended where it began when he was assigned back to Brussels in 1939. Expelled from Belgium a second time when the Germans re-occupied the country, Captain Gade retired from active service in 1940 at age 65. Already the author of half a dozen books on topics ranging from history to biography, Gade wrote his memoirs All My Born Days (1942), detailing the story of his fascinating life. After he retired, he went on to earn both a Masters Degree (1948) and a Doctorate (1950) from Columbia University. Gade died in August 16, 1955 at the age of 80 in St. James, New York.