WKing Haakon VII's Freedom Cross was established in Norway on 18 May 1945. The medal is awarded to Norwegian or foreign military or civilian personnel for outstanding achievement during war. It is ranked fifth in the order of precedence in the Norwegian honours system.
WSir Edward Victor Appleton was an English physicist, Nobel Prize winner (1947) and pioneer in radiophysics. He studied, and was also employed as a lab technician, at Bradford College from 1909 to 1911.
WAir Chief Marshal Lloyd Samuel Breadner, CB, DSC was a Canadian military pilot and Chief of the Air Staff during World War II.
WSir Leslie Oswald Brown KCB CBE DSC AFC was a South African who served with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in both World Wars, attaining the rank of Air Vice Marshal.
WJames Michael Calvert was a British soldier involved in special operations in Burma during the Second World War. He participated in both Chindit operations and was instrumental in popularizing the unorthodox ideas of General Orde Wingate. He frequently led attacks from the front, a practice that earned him the nickname amongst the men under his command of "Mad Mike."
WPrince Carl of Sweden and Norway, Duke of Västergötland was a Swedish prince. Through his daughters, for whom he arranged excellent dynastic marriages, he is an ancestor of several members of European royal houses today, including the reigning monarchs King Harald V of Norway, King Philippe of Belgium, and Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg.
WLars Christensen was a Norwegian shipowner and whaling magnate. He was also a philanthropist with a keen interest in the exploration of Antarctica.
WNiels Christian Ditleff was a Norwegian diplomat noted for his humanitarian efforts on behalf of refugees from Nazi Germany. In spite of opposition from his own and allied governments, he initiated and led the White Buses campaign to rescue Scandinavian prisoners held in German concentration camps. He also played an instrumental role in evacuating foreign diplomats from Warsaw during the German invasion and to rescue Jews in coordination with Nansenhjelpen.
WPrince Eugen Napoleon Nicolaus of Sweden and Norway, Duke of Närke, was a Swedish painter, art collector and patron of artists.
WBrigadier Stanley James Ledger Hill, was a British Army officer, who served as commander of the 3rd Parachute Brigade, part of the 6th Airborne Division, during the Second World War. Born in Bath, Somerset, Hill was educated at Marlborough College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst before joining the British Army in 1931 and being commissioned into the Royal Fusiliers. He commanded a platoon for a short period, and was then attached to the command post of Field Marshal Lord Gort during the Battle of France in May 1940, where he oversaw the evacuation of Brussels as well as the beach at De Panne during the evacuation of Dunkirk. After a brief period of time in the Irish Free State, he volunteered for parachute training and joined the 1st Parachute Battalion, and was its commanding officer when its parent formation, the 1st Parachute Brigade, was deployed to North Africa.
WAir Marshal Robert Leckie, was an air officer in the Royal Air Force and the Chief of the Air Staff of the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1944 to 1947. He initially served in the Royal Naval Air Service during the First World War, where he became known as one of "the Zeppelin killers from Canada", after shooting down two airships. During the inter-war period he served as a Royal Air Force squadron and station commander, eventually becoming the RAF's Director of Training in 1935, and was Air Officer Commanding RAF Mediterranean from 1938 until after the beginning of the Second World War. In 1940 he returned to Canada where he was primarily responsible for the Commonwealth Air Training Plan, transferring to the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1942.
WRear-Admiral Leonard Warren Murray, CB, CBE was an officer of the Royal Canadian Navy who played a significant role in the Battle of the Atlantic. He commanded the Newfoundland Escort Force from 1941–1943, and from 1943 to the end of the war was Commander-in-Chief, Canadian Northwest Atlantic. He was the only Canadian to command an Allied theatre of operations during World War I or World War II.
WJóannes Patursson was a Faroese nationalist leader and poet. He served as a member of the Parliament of Denmark and the Parliament of the Faroe Islands.
WCarl Jacob Karsten Petersén was a Swedish Army officer. During World War II he served as head of the intelligence agency C-byrån. He later served as Secretary General of the International Road Transport Union.
WRear Admiral Eric Gascoigne Robinson was a Royal Navy officer and an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He earned his award by going ashore and single-handedly destroying a Turkish naval gun battery while a lieutenant commander with the fleet stationed off the Dardanelles during the Gallipoli campaign in the First World War.
WStig Adolf Roth was a Swedish art historian, museum curator, and museum director.
WAdmiral Sir Alan Kenneth Scott-Moncrieff, was a Royal Navy officer who served as Commander-in-Chief, Far East Fleet from 1955 to 1957.
WRear-Admiral Robert St Vincent Sherbrooke, was a senior officer in the Royal Navy and an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
WJohn Ernst Steinbeck Jr. was an American author and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception." He has been called "a giant of American letters," and many of his works are considered classics of Western literature.
WPrince Wilhelm, Duke of Södermanland was a Swedish and Norwegian prince. He authored many books as Prins Wilhelm.