78th Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. London born Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie was the son of the Hon. James Bertie and Lady Jean Crichton-Stuart. Grandson of Montagu Arthur Bertie, 7th Earl of Abingdon and John Crichton-Stuart, 4th Marquess of Bute, he was the fourth cousin twice removed of Queen Elizabeth II. Educated at the English Roman Catholic public school of Ampleforth College, he graduated in modern history from Christ Church, Oxford. Furthering his studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, between 1948 and 1950 he rendered military service in the Scots Guards, becoming a commissioned officer in 1949. Following a brief experience in the commercial sector, he started lecturing modern languages, particularly French and Spanish, at Worth Abbey School, a Benedictine public school in Sussex, holding such a position for twenty-three years. Entering the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in 1956, taking perpetual vows, in 1981 he became a religious member, joining the Government of the Order as a member of the Sovereign Council. In April 1988, he was elected the 78th Grand Master, becoming thus the first Englishman to be elected to such a position since 1258. Hospitaller of the Sanctuary of Lourdes, Bertie succeeded the late Fra Angelo de Mojana, the famous Milanese nobleman who had served the Order as Grand Master since 1962, accomplishing a great deal of modernization to the Order. Serving for nearly twenty years from 1988 until his death in 2008, Fra Andrew's election received the ratification of Pope John Paul II on April 11, 1988. A noted black belt and honorary citizen of several historical cities, including Rapallo, Vittoriosa, Veroli, Lourdes, Santa Severina and Magione, Bertie once described the aims of the Order as "to help the poor and the sick. That is and always has been our primary aim". Succumbing to cancer in Rome, his remains lie interred inside the church of Santa Maria del Priorato on the Aventine Hill in Rome. On Friday, February 20, 2015, at Sala del Concordato on the first floor of the Palazzo del Vicariato di Roma, the opening session of the diocesan enquiry for the cause of beatification and canonisation was held, being thus the first time in its millenary history that the Order of St. John proposed one of its Grand Masters for sainthood.