Andrew Bertie
Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie (15 May 1929 – 7 February 2008) was Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta from 1988 until his death in 2008. On 20 February 2015 a formal inquiry for the cause of his beatification and canonisation was opened in Rome. Early career. Bertie was born in London as the elder son of Hon. James Bertie (youngest son of the 7th Earl of Abingdon) and Lady Jean Crichton-Stuart (daughter of the 4th Marquess of Bute). He was the fifth cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II, by common descent from  King George III and his wife Charlotte Sophia. 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 School. Grand Master of the Order of Malta. 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). He also joined the government of the Order in 1981 as a member of the Sovereign Council, and in April 1988, he was elected Grand Master. Subsequently, he was Hospitaller of the Sanctuary of Lourdes, which is the annual pilgrimage site of SMOM. He succeeded the late 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": Personal life. Bertie never married or had children. He died in Rome from  cancer on 7 February 2008, aged 78. 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".