Matthew Festing of Britain has been elected the new Grand Master of the Knights of Malta.
Elected in a secret conclave, he succeeds Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie, also British, who died last month.
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.