Seán Lester (1889-1959) was an Irish diplomat and the last General Secretary of the League of Nations.
Lester was both an Ulster Protestant and an Irish nationalist. He was born in County Antrim, the son of a butcher. 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 joining the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He became a journalist working for the North Down Herald bfore moving to Dublin where he found a job with the Freeman's Journal rising to news editor by 1919. A number of his friends joined the new government of the Irish Free State formed after the war and Lester was offered a position as director of publicity. In 1923 he joined Ireland's new Department of External Affairs and was sent to Geneva in 1929 to act as the Free State's delegate to the League of Nations. Though the position was meant to be temporary, Lester took to the job and remained at the post. In 1930 he succeeded in organising the Free State's election to the Council (or executive body) of the League of Nations.
In 1933, Lester was seconded to the League's secretariat and sent to Danzig as the League of Nations' High Commissioner for the city which 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 protested to the German government against its persecution of the Jews.
Lester returned to Geneva in 1937 to become deputy general secretary of the League of Nations becoming general secretary of the body in 1940. He became the League's leader a year after the beginning of World War II which had rendered the League impotent. Lester oversaw the League's closure in 1946 as its functions were transferred to the United Nations and retired to the west of Ireland.
Biographies
- Last Secretary General: Sean Lester and the League of Nations by Douglas Gageby, 1999, ISBN 1860591086
External links
Last updated: 07-10-2005 14:00:53
