Fridrihs Vesmanis
(1875-1941)
Chairman of the 1st Saeima until 17 March 1925; Latvia’s ambassador to Great Britain until 1932. After returning to Latvia, he became a member of the Senate of the Supreme Court. Frīdrihs Vesmanis retired from the Senate in 1934.
Frīdrihs Vesmanis was born on 15 April 1875 in Rundāle. After graduating from the Jelgava Gymnasium, he studied law at Tartu University. He joined the political movement Jaunā strāva (New Current) and worked at the newspaper Dienas Lapa (The Daily Paper). After the arrests of 1897, he emigrated to England, where he became editor-in-chief of the periodicals Sociāldemokrāts (The Social Democrat) and Latviešu strādnieks (The Latvian Worker) in 1899. Frīdrihs Vesmanis returned to Latvia in 1904. He graduated from St. Petersburg University in 1909. After graduating, he started his career as a lawyer in Jelgava, where in 1920 he was elected mayor of the city.
Frīdrihs Vesmanis was a member of the People’s Council and a member of the Constitutional Assembly. He was also elected as a member of the 1st Saeima. He was deported to another part of the USSR in 1941 and died there in 1941.