So, three week old Jarrah, British son of Shamima Begum has died of pneumonia.  At three months old I got the same illness and was expected to die. That was in Allied-occupied post war Berlin. Our German doctor said my only chance of survival was a new drug called penicillin that was available in the British Military Hospital. They wouldn’t give it to Germans, but if my distraught parents – both British – took me to the hospital I might get some and it might just save me.

That was spring 1952, and I got my chance. What, I have to ask, have we learned since then about saving sick babies? Perhaps we should have learned that all are worth saving, not just British ones.