A book celebrating the life and career of Sean Lester, the last secretary general of the League of Nations, was launched in Belfast last night, where the author, Mr Douglas Gageby, told of his childhood in the city.
Lester was the high commissioner to the free city of Danzig in the years leading up to the second World War. He endured the wrath of the local Nazis there before becoming acting secretary general of the League of Nations in Geneva, a position he maintained until the formation of the UN as the war came to a close.
Lester was born in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, where his father was a grocer. The family moved to Belfast where Lester came into contact with the Gaelic League. He joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Volunteers.
He had also become a journalist, first in provincial papers and later as news editor/chief reporter of the Freeman's Journal in Dublin. In 1923, he was chosen by Desmond FitzGerald, minister for external affairs, to publicise the new State.
"He was the first western diplomat to receive the full force of Hitler's hatred," said Mr Gageby, who is married to Lester's eldest daughter, Dorothy Mary.
"The way history goes, years become forgotten; he is very much a forgotten man of the times. When I was a young boy living in Belfast his picture was in the newspaper almost every day." Mr Gageby joined The Irish Times in 1959 and held the position of editor from 1963 to 1974 and from 1977 until his retirement in 1986. He began his journalistic career with the Irish Press, where he went on to help found the Evening Press.
The Last Secretary General: Sean Lester and the League of Nations, by Douglas Gageby, is published by Town House.