Olav Espegren (1879–1948) was a Norwegian missionary affiliated with the Norwegian Lutheran Mission. After attending the mission school in Norway, he was sent as a missionary to China in 1902.

In 1904 he established the mission station in Nanyang in southwestern Henan, as part of the Norwegian Lutheran China Mission's mission field, with was centered at Laohekou, which was situated south to the border of the neighboring province of Hubei. He was the overseer of his locality's mission field during the national turmoil that created the lawless and fractioning states in 1927.

In his final years in China, he was weakened by disease. Due to the outbreak of the Chinese Civil War in Kunming, he and other missionaries had to flee over the Himalayas to India and they returned to Norway for the last time in 1946.

References

• Dehlin, Harald Stene (1968). Østens Hvite Sønn (in Norwegian). Oslo: Lunde. OCLC 28267620.
• Johnston, Tess; Erh, Deke (1996). God & Country: Western Religious Architecture in Old China (1st ed.). Hong Kong: Old China Hand Press. ISBN 9789627872061. OCLC 35027758.
• Tiedermann, R. G. (2009). Reference Guide to Christian Missionary Societies in China: From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century. Armonk: M. E. Sharpe. p. 191. ISBN 978-0-7656-1808-5.
• Steenstrup, Bjørn, ed. (1979). Hvem er Hvem? 1979. Hvem er hvem? (12th ed.). Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget. ISBN 9788257301125. OCLC 41994323.