Fra' Matthew Festing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Festing

Fra' Robert Matthew Festing (born 30 November 1949) is the 79th Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

Festing succeeded his compatriot Andrew Bertie, becoming the second Englishman to have served as Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta since 1259.

Family

Robert Matthew Festing is the youngest of four sons born to Field Marshal Sir Francis Festing (Chief of the Imperial General Staff), a Roman Catholic convert (who became a Knight of Malta), and Mary Cecilia, née Riddell (elder daughter of Cuthbert David Giffard Riddell of Swinburne Castle, Northumberland). His father was the grandson of Colonel Francis Worgan Festing. His mother's family is an ancient English recusant family, descending from the Throckmorton baronets and Blessed Sir Adrian Fortescue, martyred in 1539. His three elder brothers are John Festing (a former High Sheriff of Northumberland), Major Michael Festing, and Andrew Festing (formerly President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters).

Education and career

Fra' Matthew attended Ampleforth College, before going up to St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated in Modern History. He was sponsored by the British Army in the rank of second lieutenant on a university cadetship whilst at Cambridge before being commissioned, on 23 July 1971, as an Ensign in the Grenadier Guards; his service number was 486330. Currently holding the rank of Colonel in the Territorial Army, Festing has also served as the County Cadet Commandant of Northumbria Army Cadet Force.

Festing was a Deputy Lieutenant for Northumberland and, in the 1998 Queen's Birthday Honours, HM Government appointed him Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Fra' Matthew is Patron of the Sandhurst Foundation and Trustee to Northumbria Historic Churches. Until 2008, he was Sotheby's auction representative in Northumberland.

Order of Malta

Fra' Matthew was admitted to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in 1977. In 1991, he took perpetual vows, becoming a Knight of Justice. From 1993 to 2008 he served as Grand Prior of England, the first in this office since 1815.

On 11 March 2008, Fra' Matthew was elected Grand Master following a conclave-style meeting at the order's villa at Aventine Hill in Rome. Only the third English Grand Master of the Order of Malta, he is the immediate successor to the second, Fra' Andrew Bertie, the first being Hugh de Revel in 1258–59.