Trevor Rees-Jones (bodyguard)


Trevor Rees-Jones is an English 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 accident.
Early media reports claimed he survived because he was wearing a seat belt, but a December 2006 Operation Paget technical examination said that none of the occupants of the car were wearing their seat belts.

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. When he was 10, 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.

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.
On 12 August 1995, Rees-Jones married his first wife, Sue Jones, in Oswestry, where the couple had met at Fitzalan School. Jones filed for divorce in June 1997.

Car accident, injuries and aftermath

On 31 August 1997, Rees-Jones was seriously injured in the crash that resulted in the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. The Princess' 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 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. At first, it was widely rumoured that Rees-Jones had lost his tongue in the accident, but this was untrue. He underwent a 10-hour operation to restore his jaw to a normal condition.
Rees-Jones returned to Britain on 3 October 1997 having spent a month in hospital. At the time, he was able to communicate only by whispering and writing down answers. 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.

Recovery and later life

Following recovery from his injuries, Rees-Jones 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.
Rees-Jones wrote a book, published in 2000, titled The Bodyguard's Story: Diana, the Crash, and the Sole Survivor, 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.