Editing Seán Lester

{{Short description|Last secretary-general of the League of Nations}}
{{use Hiberno-English|date=March 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{refimprove|date=March 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix =
|name         = Seán Lester
|honorific-suffix =
|image        = SeanLester.jpg
|imagesize    = 200px
|alt          =
|caption      =
|office       = [[Secretary-General of the League of Nations]]
|term_start   = 31 August 1940
|term_end     = 18 April 1946
|predecessor  = [[Joseph Avenol]]
|successor    = [[Trygve Lie]] (as [[Secretary-General of the United Nations]])
|office1      = [[Deputy Secretary-General of the League of Nations]]
|term_start1  = 18 February 1937
|term_end1    = 26 July 1940
|alongside1   = [[Francis Paul Walters]]
|1blankname1  = {{nowrap|Secretary-General}}
|1namedata1   = [[Joseph Avenol]]
|predecessor1 = [[Pablo de Azcárate]]
|successor1   = [[Francis Paul Walters]]
|birth_name   = John Ernest Lester
|birth_date   = {{birth date|1888|9|28|df=y}}
|birth_place  = [[Carrickfergus]], Ireland
|death_date   = {{death date and age|1959|6|13|1888|9|28|df=y}}
|death_place  = [[Galway]], Ireland
|restingplace =
|birthname    =
|nationality  = Irish
|party        =
|otherparty   =
|spouse       = {{marriage|Elizabeth Tyrrell|1920}}
|relations    = 
|children     = 3
|alma_mater   =
|occupation   =
|profession   = Journalist
|footnotes    = 
}}
'''Seán Lester''' (28 September 1888 – 13 June 1959) was an Irish diplomat who was 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 as John Ernest Lester, the son of a [[Protestant]] grocer Robert Lester and his wife, the former Henrietta Ritchie. Although the town of [[Carrickfergus]], where he was born and raised, was strongly [[Unionists (Ireland)|Unionist]], he joined the [[Gaelic League]] as a youth and was won over to the cause of [[Irish nationalism]].<ref name=timesobit>[[The Times]], (Obituary) 15 June 1959{{full citation needed|date=March 2024}}</ref> As a young man, he joined the [[Irish Republican Brotherhood]]. He worked as a journalist for the ''North Down Herald'' and a number of other northern papers before he moved to [[Dublin]], where he found a job at the ''Freeman's Journal''. By 1919, he had risen to become its news editor.

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

He married Elizabeth Ruth Tyrrell in 1920 by whom he had three daughters.<ref name=timesobit />

==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 and stood in for the Minister for External Affairs. He became increasingly involved in the work of the League, particularly in its attempts to bring a resolution to two wars in South America. His work brought him to the attention of the League Secretariat and began his transformation from national to international civil servant.

When [[Peru]] and [[Colombia]] had a dispute over a town in the headwaters of the Amazon, Lester presided over the committee that found an equitable solution.<ref name=timesobit /> He also presided over the less-successful committee when Bolivia and Paraguay went to [[Chaco War|war over the Gran Chaco]].<ref name=timesobit />

In 1933, Lester was seconded to the League's [[wikt:secretariat|Secretariat]] and sent to Danzig (now [[Gdańsk]], [[Poland]]), as the League of Nations' [[High Commissioner]] from 1934 to 1937. 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]]. Lester repeatedly protested to the German government over its persecution and discrimination of Jews and warned the League of the looming disaster for Europe. He was boycotted by the representatives of the German Reich and the representatives of the [[Nazi Party]] in Danzig.<ref>{{cite book|last=Boylan|first= Henry |year=1998|title=A Dictionary of Irish Biography, 3rd Edition|page= 222|location=Dublin|publisher= Gill and MacMillan|isbn= 0-7171-2945-4}}</ref>

In August 2010, a room in the Gdansk City Hall, the building that had been Lester's residence during his stay, was renamed by Mayor [[Paweł Adamowicz]] as the Seán Lester Room.<ref>[https://www.irishtimes.com/news/irishman-honoured-in-polish-city-where-he-warned-of-Nazi-danger-1.642893   Derek Scally, ''Irish Times'', 27 August 2010]</ref>

===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 showed that the League had failed its primary purpose). The League had only 100 employees, including guards and janitors, out of the 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==
{{no sources|section|date=March 2024}}
Lester was given the [[Woodrow Wilson Award]] in 1945 and a doctorate of the [[National University of Ireland]] in 1948.

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 1959. In its obituary, ''[[The Times]]'' described Lester as an "international conciliator and courageous friend of refugees". 

His granddaughter [[Susan Denham]] was [[Chief Justice of Ireland]] for the [[Supreme Court of Ireland]] from 2011 to 2017.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==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|1-86059-108-6}}
*Arthur W. Rovine: ''The first fifty years: the secretary-general in world politics 1920–1970''; Leyden 1970; {{ISBN|90-218-9190-5}}
*Michael Kennedy: ''Ireland and the League of Nations 1919–1946: politics, diplomacy and international relations''; Dublin 1996
*Paul McNamara: ''Sean Lester, Poland and the Nazi Takeover of Danzig''; Irish Academic Press Ltd 2008; {{ISBN|0-7165-2969-6}}

==External links==
*[http://www.ucd.ie/archives/html/collections/lester-sean.html Biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150312022114/http://www.ucd.ie/archives/html/collections/lester-sean.html |date=12 March 2015 }}
*[http://www.esras.com/p/NationBuilders.htm Nation Builders: Sean Lester] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202140659/http://www.esras.com/p/NationBuilders.htm |date=2 February 2017 }} biographical article from the producers of an Irish documentary on Lester.
*[http://biblio-archive.unog.ch/Detail.aspx?ID=32556 League of Nations Archives, with a short biography]
*[http://biblio-archive.unog.ch/parametersuche.aspx?DeskriptorId=80738 League of Nations Archives, Private Archives of Sean Lester]
*[http://www.difp.ie Documents on Irish Foreign Policy website]
* {{PM20|FID=pe/011314}}

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{{s-bef|before={{flagicon|France}} [[Joseph Avenol]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[League of Nations|Secretary-General of the League of Nations]]|years=1940–1946}}
{{s-aft|after={{flagicon|United Kingdom}} [[Gladwyn Jebb]]|as=acting [[United Nations Secretary-General]]}}
{{s-end}}

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{{High Commissioners of the League of Nations at Danzig}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lester, Sean}}
[[Category:1888 births]]
[[Category:1959 deaths]]
[[Category:Irish diplomats]]
[[Category:Irish Protestants]]
[[Category:Secretaries general of the League of Nations]]
[[Category:People from Carrickfergus]]
[[Category:People educated at Methodist College Belfast]]
[[Category:High commissioners of the League of Nations at Danzig]]
[[Category:Permanent representatives of Ireland to the League of Nations]]