Leonard Gyllenhaal

Leonard Gyllenhaal (3 December 1752 – 13 May 1840) was a Swedish nobleman, military officer and entomologist. Early life and ancestry Born on the Ribbingsberg manor in Västergötland in west Sweden, Leonard Gyllenhaal was son of Hans Reinhold Gyllenhaal (1724–1796), an army officer, by his wife, Anna Catharina Wahlfelt (1723-1799). By birth, he belonged to a Gyllenhaal family, which was part of the Swedish nobility. Biography He went to school Skara trivialskola in the cathedral town of Skara together with, among others, the future poet Johan Henrik Kellgren, and later renowned naturalists Anders Dahl and the brothers Adam and Johan Afzelius, with whom he went on natural excursions. Like some of his friends, he went to Uppsala to study under Linnaeus in 1769. He never matriculated and remained in Uppsala only one semester, before switching to a military career in accordance with the wishes and traditions of the family, enrolling in the Adelsfanan ("Banner of Nobles") cavalry regiment, and a few years later transferring to the drabantkåren (Garde du Corps). Gyllenhaal, however, remained in contact with Linnaeus through an extensive correspondence and continued to work as an amateur naturalist. He remained in military service until 1799, when he retired with the rank of major. As this did not take all of his time – different detachments of the Garde du Corps served at the royal court for only brief periods each year – he worked on his father's estate Höberg in Norra Vånga parish in Västergötland, which he managed on his own from 1784. He developed the estate, experimenting with new crops such as the American maize.