[5] Major-General Sir George Le Grand Jacob stated that his actions between May and September 1857 'in all probability to have prevented an explosion at Belgaum.

[7] In addition he organized night-time patrols (chiefly of civilian volunteers) and moved the depot of Her Majesty's 64th regiment, with 400 European women and children, into the fort.

[7] 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.

[1] Lester married twice, first, in 1828, at St Thomas's Church, Bombay, Helen Elizabeth Honner, they had two children, both of whom died in infancy.

[1] 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; through the Simpsons he was also first cousin of Henry Liddell, 1st Earl of Ravensworth and Sir John Dean Paul, 1st Baronet); they had five children, including:[1][8] Lester was found dead in his bed of heart disease at 7 a.m. on 3 July 1858, at Belgaum.