PROFILE

Michael Lee: Director at Pilgrim Hall

Michael was born in Croydon in 1936, the youngest of three boys (his two brothers, older by eight years, were twins). As a “pre-war” baby one of his earliest recollections was being scooped up, whilst playing in the back garden, by his mother, as a damaged German bomber, trailing black smoke from an engine, was getting rid of its ammunition by firing off its canon across a row of suburban houses, forcing cascades of splinters from the fences, and spent canon sending up showers of turf and soil. Michael and his mother ended up in the Anderson shelter that was at the bottom of the garden. They were uninjured, thanks to Michael’s mother’s quick reactions and bravery. There are no recollections of what happened to the German Bomber, one presumes it must have crashed somewhere! Michael believes that this incident was probably the first of many very near misses in his life to come!

Michael was educated in South London by the Jesuits, not that he or his parents were Roman Catholic; they were in fact Methodists, but felt that the Jesuits would provide a good education during the war years when so many teachers were called up in the forces. However, the Christian influence was a seed that was planted in those early days and lay dormant until much later in his life.


Michael did two years National Service with the RAMC and served in Kenya as Ward Master, British Military Hospital, Nairobi and later, Station Hospital, Nanyuki right on the slopes of Mount Kenya, during the days of the Mau Mau. He says that as a young man he could not have wished for a better two years of huntin’, shootin’, and fishin’, also meeting and making friends with many of the settlers and going on safari throughout East Africa. It was not all play, however, there were moments of serious and sometimes frightening work but, hey, in those days and at that age, it was “never going to happen to you”! So he is thankful to the British Tax Payer for an action packed two years.

The prospect of returning to work in England in the late fifties seemed dull compared to his life in Kenya. So after his military service, Michael returned to Kenya and stayed there for nearly thirty years! He first became a planter, managing Coffee and Tea plantations both up country and later closer to Nairobi at Kiambu. Part of this time he also served as a Police Reserve Officer as Inspector. In the late sixties he made a major career change and went into business in Nairobi, eventually becoming Managing Director of a Swiss and German firm selling scientific instruments, covering the whole of East Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and the Seychelles. He did this for about 17 years travelling extensively in all these countries.
 
Michael met his wife Maggie in Kenya. They have three children; Howard, married to Mojgan, with two grandsons, Daniel and Samuel, they all live in New Jersey. Lucienne in Amsterdam, and Alexander, a lecturer at Birmingham University.

The remainder of Michael’s commercial career has been in the scientific instrument business in the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands and lastly, running his own off-shore company in Cyprus.

During their time in Cyprus, Michael and Maggie became committed Christians through their membership and work with the Anglican church in Paphos where Michael was Church Warden and Maggie served as Church Council secretary and Co-ordinator of the Ladies’ Guild. Michael also served as a trustee on the Jerusalem and East Mission Trust. With a deeper commitment to Christian work and advice from Bishop John Brown, also David and Joyce Huggett, Michael and Maggie began looking for a position to serve in full time Christian work.

Quite soon after this decision was made, the door opened for their present work at Pilgrim Hall Christian Trust where they both have been working as Executive Directors for over ten years.

Upon returning to the UK in 1995, Michael became a committee member of The Friends of Cyprus and the Gulf and it is through this connection that the Spring Reunion at Pilgrim Hall was started in 1999 and continues as a regular annual event in April/May. He is vice-chairman of this committee.