Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Parkinson Lester, KCB, (3 February 1795 – 3 July 1858) was an army officer in the East India Company, third son of John Lester, merchant, of Racquet Court, Fleet Street, and his wife, Elizabeth Parkinson.

Early life

Born on 3 February 1795, to John Lester a member of the prominent Lester merchant family of

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...

, Dorset and the nephew of

Benjamin Lester Benjamin Lester (13 July 1724 – 25 January 1802) was a British politician and merchant involved in the Newfoundland fishery. He was born in Poole, England, the son of Rachell Taverner and Francis Lester, who was a merchant and also served as m ...

, MP for

, his mother was Elizabeth Parkinson, daughter of John Parkinson. Educated at Mr Jephson's academy at Camberwell and at

Addiscombe Military Seminary The East India Company Military Seminary was a British military academy at Addiscombe, Surrey, in what is now the London Borough of Croydon. It opened in 1809 and closed in 1861. Its purpose was to train young officers to serve in the East India ...

. He qualified for a commission into the Bombay artillery on 22 April 1811.

Military career

Lester's commissions, all in the Bombay artillery, were: second-lieutenant (25 October 1811), lieutenant (3 September 1815),

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

(1 September 1818),

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

(14 May 1836),

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

(9 August 1840), brevet colonel (15 March 1851), and major-general (28 November 1854). he was finally promoted to Lieutenant General on 3 July 1858. Lester's career was marked by its efficiency, resulting in his being 'specially thanked for his zealous and efficient services' by the governor of Bombay in April 1847. His career during his service in India chiefly involved acting commissary of ordnance, commissary of stores, and secretary to (and afterwards ordinary member of) the military board. A system of double-entry bookkeeping introduced by him was, in 1834, ordered to be generally adopted in the Ordnance department. Lester was appointed to command the southern division of the Bombay army in April 1857, he assumed command there at his headquarters at

Belgaum Belgaum (ISO 15919, ISO: ''Bēḷagāma''; also Belgaon and officially known as Belagavi) is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka located in its northern part along the Western Ghats. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous ...

on 12 May 1857. Major-General Sir George Le Grand Jacob stated that his actions between May and September 1857 'in all probability to have prevented an explosion at Belgaum.' He repaired the fort, moved the powder and ammunition inside the fort, deported suspected sepoys, and moved guns, gun carriages, and horses into the fort. In addition he organized night-time patrols (chiefly of civilian volunteers) and moved the depot of Her Majesty's 64th regiment, with 400 European women and children, into the fort. He vetoed the proposal of the commanding officer of the 29th Bombay native infantry, backed by the political agent, Mr Seton-Karr, to disarm the regiment as potential mutineers on the ground of the inadequacy of any European force for the task, and the possibility of a failure which would end in disaster. On the arrival of British troops (10 August 1857) he supervised the court-martial, execution, and other punishment of rebels. One of these courts-martial consisted entirely of Indian non-commissioned officers, a testament to Lester's wise leadership. The measures were among the precautions which prevented the insurrection spreading to western India, and Lester was hardly given the credit due to him for them.

Personal life

Lester was a deeply religious man. During his period in India, a profane conversation at which

Sir John Keane, 5th Baronet Sir John Keane, 5th Baronet, DSO (3 June 1873 – 30 January 1956) was an Irish barrister and politician. Early life Keane was the son of Sir Richard Keane, 4th Baronet and Adelaide Vance, daughter of John Vance MP. He was educated at Clifto ...

was present resulted in his leaving a mess breakfast table in protest against the conversation and it placed him temporarily under an official cloud. Lester married twice, first, in 1828, at St Thomas's Church, Bombay, Helen Elizabeth Honner, they had two children, both of whom died in infancy. He married secondly, in 1840, at Mahabaleshwar, Charlotte Pratt Fyvie, daughter of the Revd William Fyvie (nephew of Elizabeth Simpson, wife of Henry Bridgeman, 1st Baron Bradford; through the Simpsons he was also first cousin of Henry Liddell, 1st Earl of Ravensworth and Sir John Dean Paul, 1st Baronet); they had five children, including: * Charlotte Elizabeth Lester (1842-1874), married

James Rhoades James Rhoades (1841 – 15 March 1923) was an Anglo–Irish poet, translator and author. He worked as a schoolmaster. Life Rhoades was born in Clonmel, and was educated at Rugby School and Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1864 and ...

. * Rev. John Moore Lester (1851-1919), Rector of Litchborough, married twice, his descendants included his grandchildren,

James Shaw, Baron Kilbrandon Charles James Dalrymple Shaw, Baron Kilbrandon, PC (15 August 1906 – 10 September 1989) was a Scottish judge and law lord. Family and education He was the son of James Edward Shaw and his wife Gladys Elizabeth Lester (the daughter of the ...

and Katherine DeMille, nee Lester. * Horace Frank Lester (1853-1896) Lester was found dead in his bed of heart disease at 7 a.m. on 3 July 1858, at Belgaum.

References

External links

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lester, Frederick 1795 births 1858 deaths Graduates of Addiscombe Military Seminary British East India Company people British East India Company Army officers British East India Company Army generals British Army lieutenant generals British Army officers Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath British military personnel of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 British military personnel of the Second Anglo-Sikh War Bombay Artillery officers