The Grand Prix Drivers Club lost one of the members of its Comite d’Honneur with the passing of Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, today April 23.
Jean, Benoit Guillaume Robert Antoine Louis Marie Adolph Marc d’Aviano, was born on January 5 1921 and Pope Benedict XV was one of his godparents, hence his second name. He was educated in England and became Heir Apparent to the Dukedom in 1939.
Warned of the invasion of Luxembourg during WWII the family managed to escape to Paris and then to New York. He then studied Law at University in Canada before volunteering for the Irish Guards in 1942 and returning to Europe and was involved in the Normandy landings. Even after the end of the war he was proud to remain a Colonel of the Irish Guards
He became Grand Duke of Luxembourg in 1964 when his mother abdicated and in 2000, after reigning for 36 years he too abdicated and his son Henri became the new Grand Duke of Luxembourg. When he died at the age of 98 he had been the longest living Monarch in the World.
The Grand Prix Drivers Club have sent condolences to the present Grand Duke and his Family.