Seán Lester

Seán Lester
Secretary-General of the League of Nations
In office
31 August 1940 – 18 April 1946
Preceded by Joseph Louis Anne Avenol
Succeeded by Position abolished
Personal details
Born John Ernest Lester
28 September 1888
Carrickfergus, Ireland
Died 13 June 1959 (aged 70)
Galway, Ireland
Nationality Irish
Spouse(s) Elizabeth Tyrrell
Children 3
Profession Journalist

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

Early life

He was born in County Antrim, the son of a Protestant 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.[1] 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. He married Elizabeth Ruth Tyrrell in 1920, by whom he had three daughters.[1]

Diplomatic career

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.

When Peru and Colombia disputed over a town in the headwaters of the Amazon, Lester presided over the committee which found an equitable solution.[1] He also presided over the less successful committee when Bolivia and Paraguay went to war over the Gran Chaco.[1] In 1933, Lester was seconded to the League's Secretariat and sent to Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland), 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 and discrimination of the Jews. For this reason he was boycotted by both the representatives of the German Reich and the representatives of the Nazi Party in Danzig.[2]

League of Nations

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). The League had only 100 employees, including guards and janitors, of its original 700. Lester remained in Geneva throughout the war, and kept the League's technical and humanitarian programs in limited operation for the duration of the war. In 1946 he oversaw the League's closure, and turned over the League's assets and functions to the newly established United Nations.

Later years

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, where he died. In its obituary, The Times described Lester as an "international conciliator and courageous friend of refugees". He was given the Woodrow Wilson Award in 1945 and a doctorate of the National University of Ireland in 1948. His granddaughter Susan Denham was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ireland from 2011 to 2017.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 The Times, (Obituary) 15 June 1959
  2. ↑ Boylan, Henry (1998). A Dictionary of Irish Biography, 3rd Edition. Dublin: Gill and MacMillan. p. 222. ISBN 0-7171-2945-4.

Biographies

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
France Joseph Louis Anne Avenol		 Secretary-General of the League of Nations
1940–1946 		Succeeded by
United Kingdom Gladwyn Jebb
as acting United Nations Secretary-General
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