Sean Lester - Exhibition Panels

From John to Sean

The Rising Tide

Making A Reputation

The Most Dangerous Job In The World

Sticking to the Seat

John Ernest Lester was born on September 28 1888 in Woodburn, Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim to Robert John Lester and his wife Henrietta Marie Ritchie.

“…from the time when I began to develop a mind and an individuality I became an Irish nationalist of the positive variety, looking for Irish freedom and happiness and development while believing that only on this basis of Irish liberty could the two islands become friends.”

“Every question of international interest is dealt with.”

Sean Lester spent nearly two years in Danzig, the ‘powder-keg’ of Europe. He did not want to go, but considered it his duty to uphold the League of Nations in a city that was rapidly becoming a flashpoint.

Lester returned to Geneva as Deputy Secretary-General of a League in crisis. Years of appeasement by the Great Powers had allowed Germany, Italy and Japan to go their own way. There was little the League could do but sit and watch as member state after member state departed. Others disappeared as they were absorbed into Hitler’s Third Reich.

After leaving school at fourteen Lester attempted various jobs before settling on journalism in his early twenties. Despite his Protestant background, Lester’s political sympathies were nationalist. This led him to move to the south of Ireland and in 1923 he left journalism to begin a career as civil servant and diplomat in the Irish Free State. This paved the way for his appointment as the Irish delegate to the League of Nations in Geneva in 1929. Events would transform this most unambitious of men into an international statesman. He became a household name in the 1930s and 1940s as he stood against the Nazis, first in Danzig and later in Geneva. As Secretary-General of the League of Nations during World War II Lester’s insistence on remaining at his post transformed him into a powerful symbol of resistance and hope. In 1945 he gained the Woodrow Wilson Award from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation in America and was awarded an honorary doctorate by Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin in 1947 and 1948 respectively.

1. Sean Lester

—Sean Lester 1

Sean Lester 6.Note 1911that Census the Domain, only family ©is Public NAI.

member speak Note that to Sean Lester is English and Irish. the only family member to speak English and Irish.

—Sean Lester

2. Robert John Lester, Sean Lester’s father.

In addition to Sinn Fein and the Gaelic League, Lester joined the Dungannon clubs. They sought “not to repeal the Union, but the Conquest: Not to resume or restore an old constitution, but to found a new nation and raise up a free people” that would, like the League, “seek to build [an Ireland] for every Irishman, irrespective of his creed or class or rank or station”.

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1. 1911 Census 7. Sean Lester, c. 1916 © United Public Domain, © Nations NAI. 2. Archive at Geneva

Sean Lester, c. 1916 © United Nations Archive at Geneva

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Modern photo of the GPO

There was also the Belfast circle of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, which Lester joined in ‘1909 or 1910’. There, he was one of twelve, part of ‘a bookish crowd, looking beyond Irish history and Irish thinking’ to the classics.

His diplomatic career came to an end when he retired in 1947. He moved to Clifden, near Galway and lived happily with his wife Elsie until June 1959, when he suffered a stroke. He died surrounded by his family and was buried in the Church of Ireland graveyard in Clifden. The legacy he left through his career is still celebrated today.

3. Henrietta Marie ‘Mary’ Ritchie, Sean Lester’s mother. © United Nations Archive at Geneva

He did not take part in the Easter Rising of 1916. This was because he respected the order given by the commanderin-chief, Eoin MacNeill, to all Irish Volunteers to refrain from marches, parades, or other action during that fateful Easter Sunday.

8. In 1920, at the age of twenty two, he married Elizabeth Ruth ‘Elsie’ Tyrrell. Their marriage was long and happy, and they had three daughters—Dorothy Mary, Patricia and Ann. © United Nations Archive at Geneva

When he arrived in January 1934, it was to a city with a strong Nazi presence. The swastika was flown from public buildings, and the Nazis in the Senate used their influence to crush any opposition, political or otherwise.

In April 1929 Sean Lester was appointed as the Irish representative to the League of Nations in Geneva. Lester himself would comment that it was the first fully recognised diplomatic post of the new Irish Free State. He was enthusiastic about the League and the opportunity it offered to establish Ireland as a nation state in the eyes of the world. He believed that the voice of small states was as important as that of the Great Powers in settling international affairs, and worked hard to ensure that Ireland was seen as doing her part. He also played an important role in resolving conflicts in South America in the early 1930s. His success brought him to the attention of his superiors within the League. In October 1933 the minutes of the Council meeting praised his ‘devotion to the League ideals, his tact and his sound political sense’. It was these qualities that led to his appointment as the League’s High Commissioner in Danzig.

In 1935 an election was held. The Nazis hoped that an overwhelming majority would allow them to annexe the Free City to the Third Reich. Lester opposed their campaign and as a result the Nazis did not get the result they wanted.

11.League of Nations

In mid-1936, Lester confirmed that he had decided to stay in Danzig until 1938. Angered, the Nazis took off the kid gloves and began a campaign of intimidation. The Lesters experienced this firsthand during the autumn of 1936.

10. Sean Lester in Geneva

Council, October 1933

The League of Nations itself was an organisation created by the Treaty of Versailles which had ended the First World War. It aimed to prevent war by encouraging countries to work together, using discussion and negotiation rather than guns to iron out difficulties and disagreements.

12. Palais Wilson,

headquarters of the League of Nations in the 1920s © Creative Commons

9. General Post office,

Dublin, Headquarters for the East Arriving in 1916

“Ulster … may also be proud that one of her sons has distinguished himself by his unselfish and meritorious service in the cause of freedom and justice.”

4. Sean Lester, c.1910

The Treaty of Versailles recreated the state of Poland, meaning that the ancient Polish port of Danzig (which had been German for two centuries) found itself cut off from the rest of Germany. Because of this, Danzig was not simply incorporated into the new Poland. It was placed under the authority of the League of Nations, who appointed a resident High Commissioner to protect its democratic constitution.

14. High Commissioner’s Residence © United Nations Archive at Geneva

—Sean Lester It was an untenable situation that came to a head when the visiting German cruiser, the Leipzig, ignored Lester during a state visit. This was a calculated insult that undermined the League’s position in Danzig and resulted in Lester’s return to Geneva. Sean Lester’s opposition to the Nazis is still remembered in Danzig. In 2010 a room in the city hall—once the High Commissioner’s residence and Lester’s home—was renamed in his honour.

15. Arthur Greiser, President of the Senate © Ailsby Collection

Arthur Greiser was the leader of the Nazi party in the Danzig Senate. He constantly blocked Lester’s attempts to do his job as High Commissioner.

The visit of the German cruiser Leipzig ... took place yesterday and while I, all dressed, awaited the arrival of the officers for the usual official call, I received a message from a subordinate official of the Senate that they had been instructed by the highest naval authorities to pay no visit to the High Commissioner. No explanation was offered.*

5. Carrickfergus, Co.

Antrim

17. Danzig in 1935

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War was declared on 1 September 1939 when Poland was invaded and by June 1940 the fall of France was imminent. This triggered the resignation of the League’s French Secretary-General, Joseph Avenol. Lester disliked Avenol, he believed him to be a traitor and he had plotted to hand the League over to Germany. Avenol’s departure and Lester’s accession as Secretary-General was greeted with relief.

The League of Nations moved its headquarters here from the Palais Wilson in 1936.

“Mr Sean Lester can be counted on to do the little there is to be done with all possible efficiency.”

16. The German cruiser, Leipzig

—A.W. Cotton

“For three months … I was not at all sure that my house might not be occupied any day by the political police or the stormtroopers.”

13. The Free City of Danzig

—6 Sept 1940, The Spectator By 1941, the number of people working for the League in Geneva had shrunk to Lester and a handful of close associates. Meanwhile, the Nazi noose tightened.

“I am living from week to week and month to month and the future is dark and unknown. ... I must hold on here. I dare not desert. I hope I shall not. I suppose I have not real courage nor real guts.” —Sean Lester Despite loneliness and fear he stayed ‘in the seat’ until the end of the war, his commitment to the League undimmed. ‘If the League [was] not already in existence it would have to be invented again’ — as indeed it was, as the United Nations.

20. Sean Lester with Trygve Lie, the first Secretary-General of the United Nations, in August 1946. © United Nations Archive at Geneva

21. Europe under Nazi Domination

At the last assembly of the League of Nations, the British delegate paid tribute to Lester:

“Has any service had more exactly the leader required? Calm, patient, unambitious, resolute and brave, our Secretary-General had every quality that was needed. … The Assembly and the United Nations have justified his great courage and his hope. —British Delegate, Philip Noel-Baker

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