Trevor Rees-Jones (bodyguard)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the former bodyguard of Diana, Princess of Wales. For the founder and chairman of Chief Oil and Gas, see Trevor Rees-Jones (businessman).

Trevor Rees-Jones
Surgeryt1998.jpg
Rees-Jones shortly after facial surgery.
Born
Trevor Rees

(1968-03-03) 3 March 1968 (age 53)
Rinteln, West Germany
NationalityBritish
OccupationBodyguard
Known forDeath of Diana, Princess of Wales
Spouse(s)
Sue Jones
​
​
(m. 1995; div. 1997)​

Ann Scott
​
(m. 2003)​

Trevor Rees-Jones (also known as Trevor Rees; born in Germany 3 March 1968) is a British bodyguard who was badly injured in the car crash in Paris that killed Diana, Princess of Wales, on 31 August 1997. Because he suffered a serious head injury, he does not recall any details from the crash.[1]

Some media reports claimed he was wearing a seat belt and survived,[2] but investigations revealed that none of the occupants of the car were wearing their seat belts.[3]

Early life[]

Rees-Jones was born on 3 March 1968 in Rinteln, Germany, the middle born of three boys of Colin Rees, a surgeon in the British Army, and Gill, a nurse. He has an older brother, Gareth, and younger brother, John.[4] At ten, he returned with his family to Oswestry, on the Welsh border near his father's childhood home. At Fitzalan High School, he enrolled in the Combined Cadet Force.[4]

Military career and first marriage[]

In 1987, Rees-Jones enlisted in the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, served one tour of duty in Northern Ireland and was awarded the General Service Medal.[5]

On 12 August 1995, he married his first wife, Sue Jones, in Oswestry, where the couple had met at Fitzalan School.[5] Jones filed for divorce in June 1997.[4]

Car crash, injuries and aftermath[]

On 31 August 1997, he was seriously injured in the crash that resulted in the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. The Princess's boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, and the driver of the car, Henri Paul, were pronounced dead at the scene; Rees-Jones was the only survivor. His face was flattened, with numerous bones broken or crushed. His face was reconstructed from family photographs by the French maxillofacial surgeon Luc Chikhani, using about 150 pieces of titanium to hold the bones together and recreate the original shape. Within a year, his face was nearly back to normal.

Hospital care costs were paid by Dodi's father, Mohamed Al-Fayed, Rees-Jones's employer at the time of the crash, and the rest by the British National Health Service (NHS). At first, it was widely rumoured that Rees-Jones had lost his tongue in the crash, but this was not the case. He underwent a 10-hour operation to restore his jaw to a normal condition.[5]

After spending a month in hospital, he returned to the United Kingdom on 3 October 1997. At the time, he was able to communicate only by whispering and writing down answers.[6] He resigned from his job as a bodyguard on 19 May 1998: Al-Fayed was reported as saying that his job would be available if he wished to return.[7]

Recovery and later life[]

Following recovery from his injuries, he moved to north Shropshire and for some time worked in a small family-run sportswear shop in Oswestry. He remarried on 15 February 2003, to Ann Scott, a teacher at Belvidere School, Shrewsbury. The ceremony took place in Welshpool, Wales.

He wrote a book, published in 2000 and titled The Bodyguard's Story: Diana, the Crash, and the Sole Survivor (ISBN 0-446-61004-6), about his experiences, with the help of ghostwriter Moira Johnston. The book reconstructed the events from Rees-Jones's partial memories and those of his family and friends. He decided to write the book because many bizarre stories had circulated about the crash and because his former employer, Al-Fayed, had accused him of not doing his job properly.[8]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "The guarded words of Trevor Rees-Jones". The Irish Times. The Irish Times. 13 March 2000. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  2. ^ "Bodyguard put on seat belt just before Diana car crash. CNN 21 September 1997.
  3. ^ Sephton, Connor (28 August 2017). "Trevor Rees-Jones: What happened to the sole survivor of Diana's crash". Sky News. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c Searching His Memory People.com
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c Hulse, Tim (2 March 1998). "In The News: Trevor Rees-Jones remembers the night of tragedy". The Independent.
  6. ^ Sadler, Brent (3 October 1997). "Diana's bodyguard returns to Britain". CNN. Retrieved 16 October 2012.
  7. ^ "Diana bodyguard quits job". BBC News. 20 April 1998. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  8. ^ "Diana's Bodyguard: What's the story?". BBC News. 6 March 2000. Retrieved 11 June 2018.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""