Yukon who is who

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Edward Lester (aka Edward Lincoln) (1871 – 1938)
	
Edward Lester was born in Liverpool, England. He enlisted in the Permanent Core of the Canadian military under the alias of Edward Lincoln for private family reasons. In 1895, Private Lincoln, late of the 60th Battalion, was attached to Company No. 3, Royal Regiment of Canadian Infantry for military instruction. He was on the pay list for Company No. 3 from August 1895 to June 1987 at St. Jean, Quebec. He was still in Company No. in the Yukon Field Force stationed at Fort Selkirk in the fall of 1898. The Field Force was divided into two garrisons at Dawson and Forst Selkirk. Lincoln was one of nine men at the Fort Selkirk garrison in May 1900. By June 1900, Lincoln had been promoted to corporal and transferred to Dawson. In June 1900, the final members of the Yukon Field Force were transferred back to their regular postings in the south. Corporal Lincoln stayed in Dawson as an important witness in the O’Brien murder trial.((Gerald Cumming, “Archival Detective Work: The Case of the Yukon Field Force Diary.” //Archivia,// 17 Winter 1983-84: 248-260.)) 

Lincoln re-enlisted in the permanent Force in March 1901 while still in the Yukon. He left in mid-summer 1901 and was transferred to No 4 Company at Fredericton where he was listed as Acting Hospital Sergeant. In June 1902, he was transferred back to his original subunit, Company No. 3 at St. Jean Quebec. Lincoln was discharged from the Canadian military in 1904. He re-enlisted in the Royal Canadian Regiment in 1907 and then transferred to the Army Medical Corp. He was discharged at the end of his term in  January 1910, re-enlisted in the Canadian Dragoons in February, and then purchased his discharge in August.((Gerald Cumming, “Archival Detective Work: The Case of the Yukon Field Force Diary.” //Archivia,// 17 Winter 1983-84: 248-260.))

Lincoln enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force to fight in the First World War. He did so under his own name of Edward Lester, as his reason for using an alias no longer existed. Lester died in Toronto leaving his wife, Adelia Alice Langville. Lester lost his diary at Fort Selkirk where it was found and saved by Florence Taylor, daughter of Isaac Taylor. Taylor died in 1980 and left the diary in her estate to the Public Archives of Canada (PAC), where a copy was made and sent to the Yukon Archives. Gerald Cummings was working in the Manuscript Division of the Public Archives when he received the damaged diary. He used clues in the diary and his own research to discover the identity of the diarist and piece together his story.((Gerald Cumming, “Archival Detective Work: The Case of the Yukon Field Force Diary.” //Archivia,// 17 Winter 1983-84: 248-260.))