Although born in Belgium as Michel Roger Lafosse, he became a naturalized British citizen in the 1990s and has since used the name Michael James Alexander Stewart of Albany. His website stated that he was a diplomat of the self-styled "Federation of Autonomous Priories of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta" (not the Sovereign Military Order of Malta or one of the Protestant Alliance Orders), and a cultural attaché at the Knights of Malta's embassy in the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe in West Africa; and that he has been awarded the United Nations 2001 "Volunteer Service Medal" under the name "Albany".