Märta Eketrä


Märta Elisabeth Margareta Eketrä, was a Swedish lady-in-waiting, favorite and confidant of queen Sophia of Sweden.
Märta Eketrä was the daughter of the noble-born colonel and courtier Johan Gabriel Eketrä and Stanislas Margareta Tersmeden. During her childhood, she was a playmate of Louise of Sweden. She never married.
In 1872, she was appointed hovfröken to the new Queen after the accession of king Oscar II to the throne. In 1889, she was promoted to the post and rank of kammarfröken.
Eketrä was a favorite and confidante of queen Sophia. She is noted to have been one of the queen's three favorite ladies-in-waiting, the other two being Ida Wedel-Jarlsberg and Ebba von Rosen. In 1878, it was Märta Eketrä who introduced Sophia to the British preacher Lord Radstock, whose teachings came to have a great importance to the Queen. Eketrä acted as the spiritual caretaker of Sophia, and was often given the task of reading from the bible during the queen's private devotions.
She accompanied the Queen on state visits, such as those to Romania and Constantinople in 1885. She took care of the practical arrangements during Sophia's illness in 1887, and nursed her after her dangerous operation that year. She also saw to it that the Queens nursing school and hospital Sophiahemmet was organised according to Sophia's wishes: she acted as the queen's representative in the board of the institution during Sophia's convalescence, and was elected to its board in 1890.
She was described in retrospect: