Andrew Bertie

Full name
	Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie

Fra' Andrew Bertie
Fra' Andrew Bertie
	Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta (more)
	78th Prince and Grand Master
Reign	11 April 1988 – 7 February 2008
Predecessor	Fra' Angelo de Mojana, 77th Prince and Grand Master
Successor	Fra' Matthew Festing, 79th Prince and Grand Master
Born	15 May 1929; London, England, United Kingdom
Died	Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.; Rome, Lazio, Italy
Burial	16 February 2008; Church of Santa Maria del Priorato, Aventine Hill, Rome, Italy
Full name
	Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie
House	Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta (SMOM)
Father	Lt. Cdr. Hon. James Bertie
Mother	Lady Jean Crichton-Stuart

Fra' Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie (15 May 1929 – 7 February 2008) was the 78th Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, serving for nearly 20 years from 1988 until his death in 2008. Bertie was the first Englishman elected Grand Master since 1258.

He never married and had a younger brother. He was the fourth cousin twice removed of Queen Elizabeth II.^[1]

On 14 August 2012, The Times of Malta reported that "The process for the beatification of the late Grand Master and Prince Fra' Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie is to begin in the coming months".^[2]

Early career

Bertie was born in London, the son of the Hon. James Bertie (son of The Earl of Abingdon) and Lady Jean Crichton-Stuart (the daughter of the John Crichton-Stuart, 4th Marquess of Bute). He was educated at the English Roman Catholic public school, Ampleforth College, and graduated in Modern History from Christ Church, Oxford. He also attended the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. From 1948 to 1950 he carried out military service in the Scots Guards, becoming a commissioned officer in 1949. After a short experience in the commercial sector, he taught modern languages (particularly French and Spanish but also German, Dutch, Tibetan and Maltese) for twenty-three years at Worth School, a Benedictine public school in Sussex, England. He was a judo black belt and taught judo at Worth.

78th Grand Master, the Order of Malta

File:Banderas de la Orden de Malta en el Palazzo di Malta (Roma).jpg

Flags flying at half-staff over Palazzo di Malta, headquarters of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, after the death of the Grand Master Andrew Bertie

Bertie was admitted to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) in 1956. He became a Knight of Justice in the order by taking Perpetual Vows in 1981 (the equivalent of a monk).^[3]

He also joined the government of the Order in 1981 as a member of the Sovereign Council and in April 1988 he was elected the 78th Grand Master. Subsequently, he was Hospitaller of the Sanctuary of Lourdes, which is the annual pilgrimage site of SMOM.^[4] He succeeded the late Fra' Angelo de Mojana, the Milanese nobleman who had served the Order as Grand Master since 1962 and accomplished a great deal of modernization to the organization. Although it is considered sovereign, the Order of Malta is also a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church, so Bertie's election needed the ratification of Pope John Paul II, which was obtained on 11 April 1988.

Bertie described the aims of the Order as “to help the poor and the sick; that is and always has been our primary aim”:

"The other military orders were there to fight the Saracens and to save Spain or the Holy Land or Prussia from the pagans. But we always had this special commitment to the poor and the sick. Our aims today are exactly the same as they were in 1099, the sanctification of our members through service to the sick."^[5]

Personal life

Bertie never married or had children. He died in Rome from cancer on 7 February 2008, aged 78.

Ancestry

Family of Andrew Bertie

16. Montagu Bertie, 5th Earl of Abingdon

8. Montagu Bertie, 6th Earl of Abingdon

17. Emily Gage

4. Montagu Bertie, 7th Earl of Abingdon

18. George Harcourt

9. Elizabeth Lavinia Vernon-Harcourt

19. Lady Elizabeth Bingham

2. Hon. James Willoughby Bertie

20. Joseph Thaddaeus Dormer, 11th Baron Dormer of Wyng

10. Sir James Charlemagne Dormer

21. Elizabeth Anne Tichborne

5. Gwendoline Mary Dormer

22. Sir Archibald Alison, 1st Baronet

11. Ella Frances Catherine Alison

23. Elizabeth Glencairn Tytler

1. Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie

24. John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute

12. John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute

25. Lady Sophia Rawdon-Hastings

6. John Crichton-Stuart, 4th Marquess of Bute

26. Edward Fitzalan-Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Glossop

13. The Hon. Gwendoline Mary Anne Fitzalan-Howard

27. Augusta Talbot

3. Lady Jean Crichton-Stuart

28. Sir Alan Edward Bellingham, 3rd Baronet

14. Sir Henry Bellingham, 4th Baronet

29. Elizabeth Clarke

7. Augusta Bellingham

30. Charles Noel, 2nd Earl of Gainsborough

15. Lady Constance Julia Eleanor Georgiana Noel

31. Lady Ida Harriet Augusta Hay

Titles, styles and honours

Titles and style

His full title was: His Most Eminent Highness Fra' Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie, Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, Most Humble Guardian of the Poor of Jesus Christ.^[6]