Verona Doris Lester (28 July 1886 – 14 February 1965) was born in Leytonstone,

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, England. She was the sister of

Muriel Lester Muriel Lester (9 December 1883 – 11 February 1968) was born in Leytonstone (now in east London, but then a prosperous Essex suburb) and grew up at Loughton, where she was a member of the Union Church. She was a social reformer, pacifist and n ...

. Doris Lester was responsible for founding Children's House and

Kingsley Hall Kingsley Hall is a community centre, in Powis Road, Bromley-by-Bow in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, East End of London. It dates back to the work of Doris and Muriel Lester, who had a nursery school in nearby Bruce Road. Their brother, ...

in Bow

East London East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

with her sister MurielThe Match Girl and the Heiress by Seth Koven, published 2015, , Princeton University Press Doris Lester worked with Muriel, but was not the international figure that her elder sister Muriel was. She received a telegram from Muriel in 1941 about her imprisonment in Trinidad. She played an active part in the management of Kingsley Hall, including the postwar period. Doris Lester's papers are part of an archive currently held at the Bishopsgate Institute in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Publications

* ''The Challenge of the Adolescent Girl'' (Intermediate Department Papers. no. 3.) 1921 by Verona Doris Lester * ''Jesus: Leader of Men'' (Teachers and Taught Text Books on Religious Education.) 1923 by Verona Doris Lester and Alice Muriel Pullen * ''Pictures of God. Hints for Sunday School teaching on the nature of God'' 1921 by Verona Doris Lester and Alice Muriel Pullen * ''Some Problems and Needs of the Intermediate Boy and Girl'' (Intermediate Department Papers. no. 4.) 1922 by Verona Doris Lester

References

20th-century Baptists Baptist pacifists Baptist socialists English Baptists English Christian pacifists English Christian socialists People from Leytonstone Female Christian socialists 1886 births 1965 deaths {{England-bio-stub