Tom Sverre Vadholm (until 1959: Johansen) (1937-2026) was a Norwegian jurist, politician (Conservative Party), heraldist, and cultural worker.
Vadholm earned his law degree (cand.jur.) from the University of Oslo in 1963 and served as a deputy judge in Horten (1964–65) and as a trainee lawyer in Oslo (1965–66). He received his license to practice law in 1966 and worked from that year with the Association of Mechanical Engineering Workshops, and from 1974 with the Norwegian Shipowners’ Drilling Rig Association, which merged with the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association in 1984.
Vadholm helped found the Joint Council for Local History Societies in Oslo in 1995 and served as its chairman for the first 12 years. He was deputy chairman of the Ullern Historical Society (now Ullern, Røa and Bygdøy Historical Society) from its founding in 1994 until spring 2015, and was awarded honorary membership in 2019.
He has written more than 100 local history articles for the society’s journals and books, as well as for other newspapers and magazines. Vadholm served as chairman of the Norwegian Heraldry Society for 12 years and was also awarded honorary membership there in 2019. He was also a board member of the Scandinavian Heraldry Society for six years until May 2015. He writes articles and gives lectures on heraldic topics and participates in Nordic and international heraldic congresses, being elected in 2013 as an associate member of the Académie Internationale d’Héraldique.
Vadholm published several heraldic studies, of which “Norwegian Municipal Coats of Arms in 100 Years” (Heraldisk Tidsskrift (vol. 9, no. 82, Copenhagen 2000, pp. 33–46), “The Axe of St. Olaf as a Norwegian Symbol” (Heraldisk Tidsskrift, vol. 11, no. 102, Copenhagen, October 2010, pp. 59–82), “The Development of Bergen’s Old City Seal into Today’s Emblem” (Våpenbrevet, no. 101, August 2017, Norwegian Heraldry Society, Oslo 2017, pp. 20–26), and “The Development of Seal, Coat of Arms and Emblem for Our Capital” (Våpenbrevet, no. 102, November 2017, Norwegian Heraldry Society, Oslo 2017, pp. 4–9).
The coat of arms is reproduced after “Skandinavisk Vapenrulla”, SVR 743/2015.