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Alexander Upton Lester
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Homesteader, resort developer.
Born at Macclesfield, Cheshire, England on 30 August 1905, son of Upton Lester and Edith Annie Lunt (1876-1950), his family immigrated to Canada in 1912, living briefly at Mapleton prior to moving to Belair and taking up a homestead just north of present-day Lester Beach. He returned to England between 1919 and 1922. He applied for his own homestead in 1923, near the Winnipeg River at the corner of Traverse Bay Road and Provincial Highway #11.
On 20 May 1934, he married schoolteacher Tannis Marian Cuddy (1912-1995, daughter of Thomas Hughes Cuddy) at Winnipeg and they had five children: Marianne Alice Grace Lester (1935-2019, wife of Robert Franklin “Bob” Parker), Thomas Alexander Upton Lester (1936-2005, husband of Alice Gilberte Nault), James Reginald Lunt “Jim” Lester (1937-1987, husband of Shirley A. Melosh), Margaret Elizabeth Maud Lester (1938-2020, wife of George Ritchie), and Marcia E. K. Lester (wife of Bernie S. Rogocki).
During the Second World War, he enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1941 and was trained at Red Deer, Alberta before going overseas in 1942, serving in England, France, Italy, and Holland. He received a military discharge in 1945 and moved from Albert Beach to Charleswood then to River Heights. He worked for the Searle Grain Company and the Board of Grain Commissioners until retirement in 1970. He assisted his sister Maud Lester to develop the Lester Beach resort community, the first such facility in the Rural Municipality of Alexander, managing its water system, garbage collection, and policing during the summer, and full-time after 1970. A monument to the Lester family is located on Lester Boulevard at Lester Beach.
He died at Winnipeg on 15 October 1988 and was buried in the Victoria Beach Pioneer Cemetery.
Marriage registration [Alexander Upton Lester, Tannis Marian Cuddy], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary [James Reginald Lunt Lester], Winnipeg Free Press, 21 February 1987, page 42.
From the Beaches to the Falls: A Winnipeg River - Lake Winnipeg Heritage by Marianne (Lester) Parker, 1989, pages 66-70, 198, 384, 416-426, 431.
Obituary [Thomas Alexander Upton Lester], Winnipeg Free Press, 20 August 2005.
Obituary [Robert Franklin Parker], Winnipeg Free Press, 15 May 2010.
Obituary [Marianne Alice Grace Parker], Winnipeg Free Press, 2 March 2019.
Obituary [Margaret Elizabeth Maud Ritchie], Winnipeg Free Press, 17 October 2020.
This page was prepared by Sharon Parker and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 3 February 2025
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