View source for Frederick Lester

{{Short description|East India Company army officer}}
{{Infobox military person
| honorific_prefix =[[Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant General]]
| name             = Sir Frederick Lester
| birth_date    ={{birth-date|3 February 1795}}
| death_date    ={{death-date and age|3 July 1858|3 February 1795}}
| placeofburial_label = 
| placeofburial =
| birth_place   =
| death_place   =[[Belgaum]], [[Bombay Presidency]], India
| birth_name    =Frederick Parkinson Lester
| allegiance    ={{UK}}
| branch        =[[Image:Flag of the British Army.svg|23px]] [[British Army]]<br />[[Image:Flag of the British East India Company (1801).svg|23px]] [[East India Company]]
| serviceyears  =
| rank          =[[Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant General]]
| unit          =
| commands      =Southern Division of the [[Bombay Army]]
| battles       =[[Indian Mutiny]]
| awards        =[[Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath]]
| relations     =
| laterwork     =
}}

[[Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant General]] '''Sir Frederick Parkinson Lester''', [[Order of the Bath|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.<ref name=OxfordDNB>{{cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-16505|title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/16505 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 }}</ref>

==Early life== 
Born on 3 February 1795, to John Lester a member of the prominent Lester merchant family of [[Poole]], [[Dorset]] and the nephew of [[Benjamin Lester]], [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|MP]] for [[Poole (UK Parliament constituency)|Poole]], his mother was Elizabeth Parkinson, daughter of John Parkinson.<ref name=CanadianDB>{{cite web|url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/lester_benjamin_5E.html.|title=Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 5, 2005|publisher=University of Toronto/Université Laval}}</ref> Educated at Mr Jephson's academy at Camberwell and at [[Addiscombe Military Seminary]].<ref name=OxfordDNB/> He qualified for a commission into the [[Bombay Army|Bombay artillery]] on 22 April 1811.<ref name=OxfordDNB/>

==Military career==
Lester's commissions, all in the Bombay artillery, were: second-lieutenant (25 October 1811), [[Lieutenant (British Army and Royal Marines)|lieutenant]] (3 September 1815), [[Captain (United Kingdom)|captain]] (1 September 1818), [[Major (United Kingdom)|major]] (14 May 1836), [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|lieutenant colonel]] (9 August 1840), brevet [[Colonel (United Kingdom)|colonel]] (15 March 1851), and [[Major-general (United Kingdom)|major-general]] (28 November 1854).<ref name=OxfordDNB/><ref name=LondonGazette>{{cite web|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/21658/page/431|title=The London Gazette 1855|publisher=Official Public Records}}</ref> he was finally promoted to [[Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant General]] on 3 July 1858.<ref name=LondonGazette1858>{{cite web|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/22181/page/4100|title=The London Gazette 1858|publisher=Official Public Records}}</ref> 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.<ref name=OxfordDNB/> 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.<ref name=OxfordDNB/> Lester was appointed to command the southern division of the Bombay army in April 1857, he assumed command there at his headquarters at [[Belgaum]] on 12 May 1857.<ref name=Jacob212>{{cite book|title=Western India Before and During the Mutinies|publisher= Henry S. King & Co.|date=1871|page=212}}</ref> [[Major-general (United Kingdom)|Major-General]] [[George Le Grand Jacob|Sir George Le Grand Jacob]] stated that his actions between May and September 1857 'in all probability to have prevented an explosion at Belgaum.'<ref name=Jacob213>{{cite book|title=Western India Before and During the Mutinies|publisher= Henry S. King & Co.|date=1871|page=213}}</ref> 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.<ref name=edFalkner>{{cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-16505|title=General Sir Frederick Lester DNB, Edited, James Falkner|author=Charles Manners Chichester|year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/16505 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 }}</ref> In addition he organized night-time patrols (chiefly of civilian volunteers) and moved the depot of [[Queen Victoria|Her Majesty's]] 64th regiment, with 400 European women and children, into the fort.<ref name=edFalkner/> 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.<ref name=edFalkner/> On the arrival of British troops (10 August 1857) he supervised the court-martial, execution, and other punishment of rebels.<ref name=edFalkner/> One of these courts-martial consisted entirely of Indian non-commissioned officers, a testament to Lester's wise leadership.<ref name=edFalkner/> 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.<ref name=edFalkner>{{cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-16505|title=General Sir Frederick Lester DNB, Edited, James Falkner|author=Charles Manners Chichester|year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/16505 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 }}</ref>

==Personal life==
Lester was a deeply religious man. During his period in India, a profane conversation at which [[Sir John Keane, 5th Baronet]] was present resulted in his leaving a mess breakfast table in protest against the conversation and it placed him temporarily under an official cloud.<ref name=OxfordDNB/>

Lester married twice, first, in 1828, at [[St. Thomas Cathedral, Mumbai|St Thomas's Church]], [[Bombay]], Helen Elizabeth Honner, they had two children, both of whom died in infancy.<ref name=OxfordDNB/> 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]]); they had five children, including:<ref name=OxfordDNB/> 
* Charlotte Elizabeth Lester (1842-1874), married [[James Rhoades]].<ref name=JRWho'sWho>{{cite book|url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540891.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-202146|title=James Rhoades' Who's Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U202146 |isbn=978-0-19-954089-1 }}</ref>
* Rev. [[John Moore Lester]] (1851-1919), Rector of [[Litchborough]], married twice, his descendants included his grandchildren, [[James Shaw, Baron Kilbrandon]] and [[Katherine DeMille|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.<ref name=OxfordDNB/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-16505 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]
{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lester, Frederick}}
[[Category:1795 births]]
[[Category:1858 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of Addiscombe Military Seminary]]
[[Category:British East India Company people]]
[[Category:British East India Company Army officers]]
[[Category:British East India Company Army generals]]
[[Category:British Army lieutenant generals]]
[[Category:British Army officers]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Indian Rebellion of 1857]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Second Anglo-Sikh War]]