LESTER, Harold Roy (1893-1915)Born on 1 September 1893, Harold Roy Lester was the son of Thomas Lester and Annie Stella nee Brown of Ravenscourt, St Kilda, and formerly of Coleraine. He was educated at Melbourne Grammar Preparatory School before entering Geelong College in 1907, remaining there until 1910.
Prior to enlistment (No 566) in the AIF on 18 August 1914, he was a commission agent and clerk for his bookmaker father, and was one of the first to join the Public Schools’ Company under Captain H Carter in 5 Battalion.
Embarking on
HMAT A3 Orvieto on 21 October 1914, he was Honorary Quarter-master Sergeant at a rest camp at Alexandria, and on arrival with 5 Battalion on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 25 April 1915, the day of the Landing. He was at first reported wounded and missing, but it was subsequently ascertained that he was shot through the head and killed.
Lance Corporal
John Murray (1896-1917) (No 559), also a Geelong Collegian, who was later killed at Polygon Wood on 20 September 1917 told the Red Cross Information Bureau of the circumstances of Lester’s death on the day of the Landing:
‘Lester was intimate with witness and was in D Company, and Taylor, Lester and (also a Geelong Collegian, who was later killed at Polygon Wood on 20 September 1917) witness were close together in the retreat to the final position on April 25th. Both witness and Taylor saw Lester fall shot, Lester being then about ten yards in front. In answer to an inquiry from witness, a man closer to Lester than witness called out that Lester had been killed, being shot in the head.’ Lt R S Elsbury told relatives that he was informed by the Rev W E Dexter that he had buried the casualty, however subsequently his grave could not be found. He has no known grave. His name is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial, Gallipoli.
Sources: Based on an edited extract from Geelong Collegians at the Great War compiled by James Affleck. p62 (citing J Beacham Kiddle OBE, War Services Old Melburnians 1914-1918 (1923); Photo Pegasus December 1915.)