May 4 2011Dear Sir,Our country has lost an unsung national hero in the passing of my friend Austin Thomas. My sympathies go out to his family, his political associates and his church family. For almost the last decade I had the pleasure of attending a weekly Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast with Austin and counted him a friend as well as a political advisor. His knowledge of the political history of Bermuda was voluminous and told from experience in the front line of the PLP and the old NLP struggle for a better honest and just government.He was never utilised as much as his talent demanded and certainly carried scars from his past political battles which were fought over his Christian principals of individual and collective integrity. He was one of the most travelled people I have ever met and his stories of faraway lands from Egypt to China were a high point in our conversations. Which he always ended by telling me how we in Bermuda are blessed and there was no better country on earth. Austin Thomas was a man who loved his God and his country with sacrificial service to both.MICHAEL MARKHAMSmith’s