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Matthew
Festing, an Englishman,
was elected Prince and
Grand Master of the
Order of Malta on 11th
March 2008 by the
Council Complete of
State of the Order of
Malta. He succeeds Fra
Andrew Bertie, 78th
Grand Master
(1988-2008), who died on
7 February 2008.
Born in Northumberland
on 30 November 1949,
educated at Ampleforth
and St. Johns College
Cambridge, where he read
history, Fra Matthew
Festing, an art expert,
has for most of his
professional life worked
at an international art
auction house. As a
child he lived in Egypt
and Singapore, where his
father, Field Marshal
Sir Francis Festing,
Chief of the Imperial
General Staff, had
earlier postings. He is
also descended from Sir
Adrian Fortescue, a
knight of Malta, who was
martyred in 1539.
Fra Matthew Festing
served in the Grenadier
Guards and holds the
rank of colonel in the
Territorial Army. He was
appointed OBE (Officer
of the Order of the
British Empire) by the
Queen and served as one
of her Deputy
Lieutenants in the
county of
Northumberland.
He became a member of
the Sovereign Order of
Malta in 1977, and took
solemn religious vows in
1991, becoming a
Professed Knight of the
Order. Between 1993 and
2008 he was the Grand
Prior of England. In
this role, he led
missions of humanitarian
aid to Kosovo, Serbia
and Croatia, and headed
the British delegation
at the Orders annual
international pilgrimage
to Lourdes.
It has long been the
practice of Grand
Masters of the Order to
quarter their personal
arms with those of the
Order as is depicted
here. The arms are
displayed upon the
Order’s eight-pointed
Latin Cross and are
surrounded by the
Collar, symbol of the
Grand Master, within a
princely mantle and
surmounted by a closed
crown.
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