Seán Lester

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Seán Lester (September 28, 1888, Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Ireland – June 13, 1959, Galway, Ireland) was an Irish diplomat and the last Secretary General of the League of Nations, from August 31, 1940 to April 18, 1946.

Lester was both an Ulster Protestant and an Irish nationalist. He was born in County Antrim, the son of a grocer. Despite the fact that the town of Carrickfergus, where he was born and raised, was strongly Unionist, he joined the Gaelic League as a youth, and was won over to the cause of Irish nationalism. As a young man he joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He was working as a journalist for the North Down Herald and a number of other northern papers, before moving to Dublin, where he found a job with the Freeman's Journal. There, by 1919, he had risen to news editor.

After the War of Independence, a number of his friends joined the new government of the Irish Free State. Lester was offered, and accepted, a position as Director of Publicity.

In 1923 he joined Ireland's Department of External Affairs. He was sent to Geneva in 1929 to replace Michael MacWhite as Ireland's Permanent Delegate to the League of Nations. In 1930 he succeeded in organising Ireland's election to the Council (or executive body) of the League of Nations for a three-year term. Lester often represented Ireland at Council meetings, standing in for the Minister for External Affairs. During this time he became increasingly involved in the work of the League, particularly in its attempts to bring a resolution to two wars in South America. This work brought him to the attention of the League Secretariat and began his transformation from national to international civil servant.

In 1933, Lester was seconded to the League's Secretariat and sent to Danzig (Gdańsk), as the League of Nations' High Commissioner. The Free City of Danzig was the scene of an emerging international crisis between Nazi Germany and the international community over the issue of the Polish Corridor and the Free City's relationship with the Third Reich. During this period Lester repeatedly protested to the German government against its persecution of the Jews.

Lester returned to Geneva in 1937 to become Deputy Secretary General of the League of Nations. In 1940 he became Secretary General of the body; he became the League's leader a year after the beginning of World War II which had rendered the League impotent. Lester remained in Geneva throughout the war. In 1946 he oversaw the League's closure, as its functions were transferred to the United Nations.

Despite rumours that he would be prepared to stand for election as President of Ireland, Lester sought no permanent office and retired to Recess, County Galway in the west of Ireland.

[edit] Biographies

  • Stephen Ashworth Barcroft: The international civil servant: the League of Nations career of Sean Lester, 1929-1947; Dublin 1973
  • Douglas Gageby: The last secretary general: Sean Lester and the League of Nations; Dublin 1999; ISBN 1860591086
  • Arthur W. Rovine: The first fifty years: the secretary-general in world politics 1920-1970; Leyden 1970; ISBN 9021891905
  • Michael Kennedy: Ireland and the League of Nations 1919-1946: politics, diplomacy and international relations; Dublin 1996

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Joseph Louis Anne Avenol		 Secretary-General of the League of Nations
1940-1946		 Succeeded by
Acting United Nations Secretary-General - Gladywn Jebb
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