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Edith Maud Lester
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Educator, resort developer.
Born at Macclesfield, Cheshire, England on 12 October 1900, daughter of Upton Lester and Edith Annie Lunt (1876-1950), her family immigrated to Canada while she attended school so she lived with her maternal grandparents for a time. She later attended the Avery Hill College at Eltham, London, England, a residential teaching training college, until graduation in 1922. She arrived in Canada later that year.
She taught at a school near Ashern (1923) and Belair School (1944-1960), played the organ at the United Church Camp at Belair and the St. Jude’s Anglican Church at Grand Marais, and helped her mother to operate a small store in the family home near Belair. She took over the store after her mother's death. She assisted her father and brother Alexander Upton Lester to develop Lake Winnipeg shoreline property into the summer resort community of Lester Beach, the first dedicated resort commuity in the Rural Municipality of Alexander and the first significant cottage development in the region outside of Grand Beach and Victoria Beach. In 1978, as leased lots were being sold, she donated the water system and present sports field to the Lester Beach Cottage Owners’ Association. There are now some 500 cottages in the area. A monument to the Lester family is located on Lester Boulevard at Lester Beach.
She was a member of the Victoria Beach Senior Citizens’ Association and IODE (Red River Chapter).
She died unmarried at the Grace Hospital on 3 February 1983 and was buried in the Victoria Beach Pioneer Cemetery.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 5 February 1983, page 44.
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.
This page was prepared by Sharon Parker and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 3 February 2025
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