As One Bermuda Alliance Government MP’s and Progressive Labour Party members trade barbs across the aisle in Parliament, an unassuming man sits in the public gallery among the spectators and reporters; his humble nature belies his actual stature.

Longtime Bermuda resident Michael A Markham is a man who goes about his work without seeking publicity, though it often seeks him out due to his various high profile endeavours.

Born in England, he moved to Bermuda as a teenager in the 1960s with his mother, stepfather, and younger brother.

He is the product of an English family whose members included such notable figures in history as his grandfather, Sir Author Markham, who was a former MP in the British Parliament, as well as friend and political ally of well-known British Prime Minister Lloyd George.

His cousin, Sir Charles Markham, served in the Kenyan Parliament and his aunt, Beryl Markham, who was the first woman to fly single-handedly from East to West across the Atlantic.

(Amelia Earhart was the first to fly from West to East).

An uncle, Edward Raczynski, was the Fourth President of the Poland Republic as well as the Polish Ambassador to the League of Nations.

“He was related to the Habsburgs. I used to visit and talk to him often,” Mr Markham explained. “He once told me that the British and American Governments knew what Germany was doing to the Jews in Europe much sooner than they admitted, because he told them personally. He was good friends with Winston Churchill.”

Raised on Knapton Hill, Mr. Markham described his life growing up in Bermuda as, “one of White privilege”.

“I travelled extensively as a child; mother would go on trips every year via the steam ships. We first visited Bermuda in 1955 and moved here in the 1960s,” he said. “During that time there were a lot of Airline Pilots living on Knapton Hill including Richard Boucher, the first pilot to captain a 707 jumbo jet for Pam Am to land in Bermuda.

“There was also Captain Page, father of the Page girls; everyone knew the Page girls and they were very beautiful.”

After graduating from Menlo College, School of Business, he met his wife Haga in 1975 and they married in 1976 and had the first of their four daughters and two sons in 1977.

That same year he attended the Billy Graham World Conference on Evangelism in Lausanne, Switzerland, where the Lausanne Covenant was signed by religious leaders of over 200 countries he had an epiphany.

“I actually had my spiritual awakening in the 70s and 80s; my first religious experience was through black people, at the church at Collectors Hill: the Church of the Nazarene.

“That is really where my life began to change. I became a missionary on my way to becoming an ordained priest.”

Mr Markham said he worked alongside Canon Lewis in London and Gibraltar.

He worked with the Anglican Church at The Hague, ministering to the population which was composed of diplomatic and business people.

His missionary work was with Youth With A Mission — a non-denominational, Christian group — including leaders from countries such as Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan, India, and Canada.

During the Billy Graham conference in Geneva, he met Festo Kivengere, the Anglican bishop of Uganda during Idi Amin’s rule.

The Archbishop would later pen a memoir entitled “How I learned to Love Idi Amin” — It was through Festo that he experienced forgiveness.

Over the years he worked with World Vision and famous religious figures such as Brother Andrew, who gained worldwide recognition as a “God Smuggler” through smuggling Bibles into Russia.

He attended the first world conference on the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem. It was at that conference that he met Kathryn Kuhman, who was an unbelievable figure.

He was in Russia during the dissolution of the Soviet Union and his travels there led to his meeting and befriending Mark Bazale and Mikhail Margleus with whom he would later form the World Council on Spiritual Diplomacy.

Mr Margleus was close to Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife Raisa.

Back in Bermuda with years of missionary work under his belt, Markham put his new found spirituality to practical use by helping as founding board member of organisations such as Habitat for Humanity Bermuda with Sheelagh Cooper, Jim Standard, as well as former US President Jimmy Carter, who visited the Island for the inaugural event.

Mr Markham also helped to start Prison Fellowship with Melvin Bassett, Neletha Butterfield, Dennis Bean, and Reggie Dill.

He started the Alternative to Incarceration (ATI) Committee with the same group of people and others, including Cleveland (Outtasight) Simmons.

That endeavour was underwritten by Jim Standard of Renaissance RE. “These folks had a real impact on my life; in fact Dennis Bean was so close to my family, my children used to call him ‘Uncle Dennis’.

“I worked on a small campaign against the UBP, on Dr John Stubbs’ bill (to decriminalise sodomy).

“I helped assist and gave advice on starting a local Christian Coalition, I remember telling Dr Stubbs ‘you may have won the battle, but you didn’t win the war; your bill helped to start the Christian Coalition in Bermuda’.

“That event formed a key turning point in my local political career. Bishop Vernon Lamb was the chairman of the Christian Coalition.”

In 1997, he had equity interest in RF Communications Ltd, which did the Progressive Labour Party (PLP) media campaign for the successful 1998 PLP election.

It was made up of all Bermudians except Roy Boyke, who was the only foreign consultant.

“I worked behind the scenes; I was not a paid consultant. Before I did that campaign I had been involved with starting the Christian Coalition in the United States and worked on Pat Robertson’s political campaign in 1988.

“I assisted Alex Scott and helped to make introductions overseas. My first problems came with the PLP over the Bank of Bermuda being sold.

“They changed the 60-40 rule to sell the Bank of Bermuda. Executives from the bank asked for my assistance and to arrange meetings with Gen Cox and the cabinet for a venture capital fund to start up Bermuda companies.

“I was political advisor to Premier Dr Ewart Brown. (Premier) Paula Cox refused to honour Dr Brown’s commitment to me; they said it was a different regime.

“That’s when I helped to break away independent PLP members like Phil Perinchief. I didn’t help Terry Lister, but he became an independent also.

“The falling out with Paula Cox and her Permanent Secretary was really the end of my involvement with the PLP.

“I never worked with the One Bermuda Alliance, but I did monitor their progress and, as the leaders of the country, they are the ones who have to be reckoned with. But I don’t feel as if they have the confidence of the people.”

Mr. Markham’s focus lately has been the Ukraine and his world council members are on the ground as international observers as reported in The Royal Gazette.

His plans to travel there to join them with a local contingent have been put on hold as the situation has become more unstable and the attitude towards Westerners has soured considerably.

He believes we are at the edge of a military conflict which will put us back 20 years in the political process.