Matthew Festing of Britain was yesterday elected the new Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, which began as a Christian crusading military order more than 900 years ago and now operates as a worldwide charity.

Elected in a secret conclave, he succeeds Andrew Willoughby Ninian Berti, also British, who died last month.

Chev. Festing, 59, from Northumberland, becomes the 79th grand master of the Knights, whose full formal name is the Sovereign Military Hospitalier Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and Malta. The order groups more than 12,500 members and some 93,000 volunteers around the world.

Today it is involved in humanitarian, medical and charity work around the world. It is a sovereign entity with its own passport and has diplomatic relations with 99 countries.

The order traces its origins to about 1048 when merchants from the rich Marine Republic of Amalfi in Italy financed a hospital run by monks in Jerusalem to offer medical care for pilgrims to the Holy Land and local non-Christian residents.

But the order later took on a military role during the first crusade. They have been based in Rome since 1834.