Fra' Andrew Bertie Obituary

Obituary - Fra' Andrew Bertie - 15/05/1929 - 07/02/2008

The death of Fra' Andrew Bertie on February 7^th 2008 marked the sheathing of a very bright sword. He was, to give him his full title, His Most Eminent Highness (HMEH) the Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, more briefly the Knights of Malta.  This is a religious Order founded in the eleventh century to look after pilgrims to Jerusalem.

The important impact of Fra' Andrew, the first English Grand Master since 1258, or possibly ever, on the Order has been noted in various public Obituaries but what also needs to be recorded, with huge gratitude, is his contribution to Worth during his twenty-three colourful years here as a member of staff from September 1960 to July 1983. 

For the benefit of Worth old boys who came to the school post-1983 and therefore did not know him, Andrew Bertie (pronounced ‘Barty'; cf ‘sergeant') was a legend in his own lifetime and memories of him abound.  He lived in North Lodge - the Good Knight's Rest - and it was his custom each morning, on his way down to breakfast, to give the fullest possible voice to the Moslem call to prayer - Allah u Akbar.  No other Roman Catholic school in England, indeed anywhere, could boast this distinctive feature and it stayed in the memory of many.  One Worth old boy, sleeping in an Istanbul hotel and catapulted into consciousness by the muezzin's hideous shriek from a nearby minaret, leapt out of bed, imagining in his semi-comatose state, that Bertie was nigh.  Fra' Andrew's additional  tactic for rousing Sixth-Formers was to enter each one's room, put the plug in the basin, turn on the tap, bid the recumbent incumbent good morning and then exit.

He was also famous for his succession of Rolls Royce cars, each with his monogram (he was descended from the Earls of Abingdon on his father's side and the Marquises of Bute on his mother's) discreetly on the door. He eventually moved from a Rolls Royce to a Fiat and, when asked why, he replied, "The ashtrays of my Rolls Royce are full".  It was also his custom when parking his car, to leave his driving gloves on the steering wheel in the ten-to-two position so that those passing by had the initially unnerving impression that a ghost was at the wheel.

He was a member of the Modern Languages Department, employed to teach French and Spanish, but he was also more than happy to teach a variety of other languages - Russian, Tibetan and Sanskrit, for example - to anyone who asked him.  The classes, on a private pupil basis, would often take place in North Lodge, perhaps in the evening, by which time Fra' Andrew had changed into leisure wear - namely, judo kit.  He might be found sitting in the lotus position and/or have a joss stick burning, perhaps to offset the aroma of the Gauloises he smoked, perhaps to provide a touch of the exotic.  A language class in North Lodge might develop into a session on topics such as Buddhism, heraldry, Outer Mongolia, healing, the English aristocracy, horoscopes, dowsing, bilocation, how to sharpen razor blades by placing them under a cardboard pyramid.  Boys were intrigued and some were positively inspired.  Michael Aris (G'64)) whose distinguished academic career established him as a leading western authority on Bhutanese, Tibetan and Himalayan culture owed much to Fra' Andrew's early influence in the 1960s.

And here is an email from David Barder (R'63) which he sent to the Worth Old Boys' Society office when he heard of Fra' Andrew's death. 

Fra' Andrew Bertie was the most influential teacher in my life. I learned from him that the accumulation of knowledge was a lifelong obligation to oneself.  I have often thought fondly about him over the years and how he made my life better for being part of it.  He was an inspiration to me and, I am sure, to the thousands who followed me at Worth.  His knowledge of the world and mastery of so many languages was like opening an encyclopaedia when you spoke to him.  I learnt much about Tibet from him, and have since always been interested in that part of the world.  Thank you for all that you gave to me and to all of us who had the honour of knowing you.

Fencing was his initial sporting activity at Worth.  Besides assisting Father Philip in teaching it, he was also happy to provide transport for the early Fencing teams, driving them to their away fixtures in his Rolls Royce.  From Fencing he moved on to Judo (he himself being a Black Belt) which he introduced to the Senior School, initiating generations of Worth boys in the mysteries of Dans and dojos.  He was also part of the pastoral scene.  He was for many years Assistant Housemaster in Gervase (or in his language, G2) to Father Kevin's, and then Father Philip's, G1.  On late night duty he often wore a black track suit and carried a black torch.  This black-panther look brought some heart-stopping moments to boys who were caught where they shouldn't be, or doing what they shouldn't do - but very rarely would he actually impose a punishment.  He was much more likely to invite malefactors to behave like sentient beings and gentlemen.  His verbal and written communications with the criminal classes tended to be mock-apoplectic.  Here is a note from Fra' Andrew to the then Head of School, Andy Stewart (C&B '67-‘72), on the subject of boys giving other boys cold baths on their birthdays:   

23^RD MAY 1972

TO                               : THE HEAD BOY

FROM                         : THE CHEVALIER BERTIE

SUBJECT                  : WATER

CLASSIFICATION    : OPEN

IMMEDIATE

IT IS INTOLERABLE THAT EVERY TIME THAT SOMEONE SUFFERS A NATAL COLD BATH THE MARKING ROOM OF THE MASTERS' COMMON ROOM IS INUNDATED STOP PLEASE INFORM THE JUNIOR SOVIET FORTHWITH THAT THIS PRACTICE IS TO STOP IMMEDIATELY STOP UNTOLD POUNDS OF DAMAGE IS DONE TO BOOKS AND PROPERTY AND EVERYONE IS UP IN ARMS STOP ANYWAY WHOLE CEREMONY IS UNCIVILIZED AND BARBARIC AND NOT WORTHY OF THE IDEALS OF THE ENLIGHTENED SOCIALIST PEOPLES' REFORMED EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM STOP FURTHERMORE COMMA IF ANYONE AT ANYTIME MAKES A MESS IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT THEY BE TAUGHT THAT THE CIVILISED COMMA SOCIALIST COMMA ETC COMMA THING TO DO IS TO CLEAR UP PRONTISSIMO STOP INSTANTANEOUS ACTION DEMANDED OR HEADS WILL ROLL COMMA IF THEY ARE NOT ALREADY STOP MESSAGE ENDS

He might also play the aristocrat.  One morning, on breakfast duty, he took a boy to task for appearing in the refectory in slippers and sent him back to his dormitory to change.  The next day Fra' Andrew himself appeared for breakfast in slippers.  Noting this, yesterday's culprit attempted to hoist our hero with his own petard; but in vain. "There is one law for the rich", replied Fra' Andrew, "and one for the poor; one law for adults and one for children; you are poor and a child, I am an adult and rich".

His bark, apoplectic or aristocratic, was entirely without bite.  It was, in fact, a cover for one of the kindest hearts one could hope to encounter.  On one occasion a boy came to see him in North Lodge and announced, melodramatically, that life had become intolerable and that he was going to end it there and then by slashing his wrists.  To which, unperturbed, Fra' Andrew replied, "In that case, kindly get off my carpet".  The bubble having been burst - to use the ablative absolute - he gave the boy his fullest and best attention.

There is a whiff of surprise in the public Obituaries that he chose to become a schoolmaster.  Why teach Modern Languages and Judo in a small school in Sussex?  Could he not have used his talents in other ways?  The simple answer is the correct one.  He enjoyed school mastering, he enjoyed Worth and he enjoyed the company of the young.  To quote David Barder again :  "He always had time for us boys, which we all appreciated'.  Indeed; boys have an unerring sense of which members of staff are interested in them and Fra' Andrew came very high on that list, which is why so many Worth boys sought him out while they were in the school and why, after leaving, they so often asked, "What news of Fra' Andrew?" And this is why he was so welcoming to Worth old boys visiting Rome, and so prompt in replying to their emails and letters.  G2 lived on alongside HMEH.

A key area of interest for him was care of the sick. The touch of polio he experienced when he was young, may partly explain his abiding concern for those who were ill.  Whatever the reason, soon after arriving at Worth in 1960 he began to promote Lourdes pilgrimages and it was he who, in the 1970s, pioneered the transformation of pilgrimages from Worth and Downside into the Order of Malta Volunteers (OMV).  By linking these school groups to his Order's bishop in Rome, he enabled them to take hospital pilgrims to Lourdes because the rule was ‘no bishop, no hospital pilgrims'.   

OMV pilgrimages have been, and remain, key experiences for many Worth boys.  Peter Bain, (R'75), now consultant neurologist at Imperial College, London wrote in an email to Fra' Andrew in October 2007 :

I would like to fondly recall my numerous trips to Lourdes with OMV, of which I was a member during my teens and early twenties.  Not only did this give me considerable insight into looking after the sick, but also the realisation that in many ways we are all vulnerable....many thanks for all that you taught me. Even now I am deeply appreciative of your spirit.

It was his concern for the sick that prompted Fra' Andrew to join the Knights of Malta in 1956 and then, in 1981, to become a professed Knight, i.e. to live under vows (it was at this point that he became ‘Fra' - ‘Brother').  He was soon elected to the Sovereign Council, the Order's ruling body, and it then became apparent to him that he would have to choose between Worth and Rome.  He found this a hard decision, but he felt he must go to where his vows beckoned.  He left Worth at the end of the summer term 1983, and five years later he was elected Grand Master of his beloved Order - whose aim is to serve ‘our lords the sick', which it most signally does.  Its 12,500 knights and 85,000 support staff currently work for the relief of suffering world-wide.  The Order provides hospitals, hospices and medical services in some 120 countries, and in 2006 it spent $900 million on its works of charity.  Of this impressive body Fra' Andrew was the much loved, and now much-mourned, head and the praises sung of him in the Obituaries are richly deserved.   

We, at Worth, remember with pleasure that, before serving for twenty years as Grand Master in Rome, he was an Assistant Master here for twenty three years, a civilising and Catholic presence in those vitally important early days.  He arrived a year after the Senior School was founded and for almost a quarter of a century he lent unforgettable and inimitable colour and warmth to our lives.  We shall not see his like again.  

Thank you, dear Andrew, for all that you gave us.  You were a very bright star in the Worth firmament.  "I think there's little doubt about his whereabouts now", wrote one Worth old boy and, to quote another: ‘'Good news for the Almighty, there will not be a dull moment".   Indeed not.

Father Stephen Ortiger