HERO-COWARD OF WARS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 786, 5 October 1929, Page 32

HERO-COWARD OF WARS

STRANGE STORY Ol- HL MAN PARADOX ROGUE S DEATH IN PARIS In a squalid room in one of the most squalid streets of Paris, the writer of this strange story helped to close the ■j eyes in death of one of the strangest j human paradoxes that ever baffled the skill of :i psychologist (says a Sydney paper t. Sydney. Melbourne. Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth all knew in turn this strange being, : and there must be hundreds of South i African and World War veterans in ! Australia who came across him. Ho was baptised in the name of John Lester, and belonged to a wellknown Scottish family. He was given i a good education, and in due course ; obtained a commission in the Gordon Highlanders, but before two years he was dismissed from the service in ! disgrace as the sequel to a scandal | in the mess arising out of the clieatj ing of brother-officers and an Ausi tralian soldier guest. ! His family packed him off first of ! all to South Africa, and from there i he made his way to Australia, settling |as a sheep farmer in Queensland | under the eyes of an uncle. For two L years he appeared to be doing well, j but when the Boer War broke out j the old restlessness seized him. and j ! he rushed off to Brisbane to enlist, ! | leaving his sheep farm to look after | itself. i When he reached South Africa he | proved himself such an efficient j soldier that the past was wiped out, ■ j and John Lester was given a comnlisi sion in the Imperial Yeomanry. lie | served with distinction, and was more I than once commended for bravery of ] the highest order, but one day the strange yellow streak lurking in the composition of a man who was entitled to the designation of “bravest ! of the brave’’ under normal conditions I asserted itself, and when in charge of tho advance guard of a force operating under the orders of Lord Methuen. Lester set the example of ignominious flight before a sudden attack, and. thanks to his cowardice, the column was overwhelmed, and Lord Methuen fell into the hands of the enemy. Leshter was court-martialled. and in all probability would have been shot but for the fact that officers who knew him were able to produce instances of exceptional bravery. His punishment was limited to dismissal from the army and cancellation of the Y.C. award for which he had been recommended. Lester returned to Australia, and for a time drifted about South Australia, but he could not settle down, and he returned to Europe, and iu London he renewed acquaintance with General Sir Hector MacDonald, who had been one of his best friends in South Africa. There is clear evidence that he atI tempted to blackmail MacDonald, and

inai '' iit'ii uu point was rear-K—- ---"'» r< MacDonald could not or w not pay more. Lester wrote an mous denunciation to Scotland vA Later, in Pans, as the result 0 f L~ tor's threats. MacDonald was dead by his own hand. IOU M When war broke out. Lester living in the underworld oi Lo a *£ and hurried from there to Fran where he joined a battalion of of' Foreign Legion. Early in ISIS h e -T 6 transferred to the liritish Artnv at the first stgu of attack Lester', yellow streak came to the surfaJ again, and he led a disorderly retreat that enabled the enemy to maJte ‘ serious breach in the British U., When thincs were looking their black-' est. Lester found his courage again and. collecting around him straggler,' from different unit.--, he threw his com ntand across the route of the victory flushed enemy, and succeeded in hold ing the attack. He retired later to the Paris underworld, where ht Inlived ever since, directing a band o; international rogues.