Count Stanislaw Skarbek (1894-1982) was a member of the Order of the Crown of Thorns, as was his son Count Andrew (see separate article).

The Daily Telegraph of 18 August 1982 published the following obituary:

“Count Stanislav Skarbek, who has died aged 88, was military secretary to successive Polish presidents in exile after Poland was invaded in the 1939-45 war.

A colonel of the 14th Lancers, which was stationed in Scotland and fought with the British 5th Army at Monte Casino, Count Skarbek was a member of one of the wealthiest families of landowners in Poland in the 19th century, with estates covering 450,000 acres in the south-eastern part of the country.

Before transferring to the reborn Polish Army in 1920 and serving with the 2nd Light Horse, Count Skarbek fought with the Austrian Army in the 1914-18 War.

He was awarded the Virtuti Militari, the equivalent of the Victoria Cross, and the Military Cross and bar. He was a Knight of Malta and held the Order of Polonia Restituta.”

The Infante José Eugenio Baviera de Borbon of Spain (1909-66) was a member of the Order of the Crown of Thorns, being admitted by Prince-Abbot Edmond I in July 1961 together with his cousin.

He was the second son of Infanta Maria Teresa, daughter of King Alfonso XII of Spain and her husband (and cousin) Prince Ferdinand of Bavaria. In 1914, Prince Ferdinand had renounced his claim to the Bavarian throne and was granted the title of Infante of Spain. Infante José married María de la Asunción Solange de Messía y de Lesseps, Condesa de Odiel, and had four children.

A talented musician, he studied piano with Alfred Cortot, one of the most sublime interpreters of his time, and musicology at the Sorbonne. However, he was not encouraged to pursue a musical career and instead became an engineer in the army, before being exiled in France with the rest of the Spanish Royal Family. He continued to occupy advisory positions in the arts until his death.

Rufus B. von KleinSmid (1875-1964) was admitted to the Order of the Crown of Thorns in the early 1930s. He was the seventh President of the University of Arizona (1914-21) and fifth President of the University of Southern California (1921-47).

A professor of Education and Psychology nicknamed “Dr Von”, von KleinSmid was recipient of the Gold Medal Award of the National Institute of Social Sciences as “one of three of the nation’s most distinguished citizens”. He received awards from more than twenty national governments.

>>Biography (USC)

>>Biography (Wikipedia)

Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia (1907-94) was High Protector of the Order of Antioch from 1960 onwards. His father, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, had been a member of the Order of the Crown of Thorns. His wife, Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia, was the daughter of Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia, head of the Imperial House of Russia and also a member of the Order of the Crown of Thorns.

Prince Louis Ferdinand was the pretender to the throne of the German Empire from 1951 onwards. He is remembered for his opposition to the Nazi Party and his work as a businessman and patron of the arts.

>>Biography (Wikipedia)

>>Obituary

Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens (1891-1949) was a member of the Order of the Crown of Thorns. He was Archbishop of Athens and all Greece in the Greek Orthodox Church from 1941 until his death, and additionally served as the country’s Regent between 1944 and 1946, when the monarchy was restored.

Archbishop Damaskinos is remembered for his courageous stance against the Nazi occupiers and in defence of the Greek Jews who faced deportation and death at their hands. He ordered the clandestine distribution of Christian baptismal certificates to Jews fleeing the Nazis, and thus saved hundreds of lives.

>>Biography (Wikipedia)

>>Profile (International Raoul Wallenberg Association)

One of the more extraordinary members of the San Luigi Orders was Princess Françoise de Bourbon-Orléans (1897-1992). She was admitted to the Order of the Crown of Thorns in 1963.

Princess Françoise asserted that she was the illegitimate daughter of Prince Henri d’Orléans and was taken to Oregon where she was adopted and given the name Opal Whiteley. The truth or otherwise of her claims to royal descent have always been the subject of fierce controversy, but she was consistent in maintaining them throughout her life, and her grave bears her royal designation alongside her adoptive name.

She was noted early on as being a child prodigy of extraordinary intelligence, with particular abilities in nature study and the ability to memorize and classify vast amounts of information on animals and plants. Soon, The Oregonian began a series of laudatory articles about her. She published what she presented as her childhood diaries in The Story of Opal, which gained wide attention and lasting acclaim.

After leaving university, she became a public lecturer. In 1923, the financial support of Lord Grey of Falloden enabled her to come to England. Travelling to France, she met and was accepted by Prince Henri’s mother, also Princess Françoise, and she provided her with the necessary funds to travel to Udaipur in India, where Prince Henri had died, so as to discover more of his life there. In India, she was the guest of the Maharaja of Udaipur  and made detailed photographic and written accounts of her experiences.

In 1925 she returned to England, leaving for Rome in 1926 and then on to Austria where she lived in a convent. She returned to England in 1927 and divided her time between London and Oxford, writing about her experiences and collecting books, including many on her Catholic faith. During the 1930s she appears to have suffered some form of mental crisis. This situation was exacerbated when she suffered a head injury during the bombing of London in the Second World War.

In 1948 she was found to be unable to look after herself, and was committed to Napsbury psychiatric hospital for the remainder of her life as a result. It was here that she received the accolade of the Order of the Crown of Thorns. Several letters from her survive in our archives and they are tragic in tone, with Princess Françoise making it clear that she was being held in Napsbury against her will, and denied access to her books and archives.

BBC Radio 4 broadcast a programme about her in 2010 and in the same year a film was made of her life. Several biographies of her have been published.

>>The Diary of Opal Whiteley (University of Oregon)

>>The Fantastic Tale of Opal Whiteley (Steve McQuiddy)

>>Biography (Wikipedia)

H.S.H. Prince Nicholas Chalvovich Tchkotoua (1905-84) was a member of the Order of the Crown of Thorns. Georgian by birth, he was forced to settle abroad after the Red Army overthrew the Georgian government in 1921. He is best known for his novel Timeless, published in 1949, which was the first novel by a Georgian writer to come to international attention.

He was a Bailli Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Order of Malta, and that Order’s Ambassador to Chile, and a Knight of Justice of the Constantinian Order of St George. He was twice married, and had six children.

>>Biography (Wikipedia)

>>Review of Timeless (FT.com)

>>Tchkotua family website

Henri, Count Carton de Wiart (1869-1951), was a member of the Order of the Crown of Thorns. He was the twenty-third Prime Minister of Belgium, serving between 1920 and 1921. He served additionally as minister for justice and minister for social welfare, and as Belgium’s delegate to the League of Nations.

>>Biography (in French) (Site of the Prime Minister of Belgium)

>>Biography (Wikipedia)