I must teach around 5,000 to 6,000 children a year visiting the museum or on outreach worshops. I seldom learn their names, and only a few stick in my mind as individuals, but every now and then a child makes a lasting impression.

Today it was reported that a 12 year old boy from Scunthorpe had drowned while playing in a local lake. The photograph they showed was of an exceptionally beautiful child, and I think I recognise him as a little boy who came to the museum something over a year ago who was very eager with his answers and fascinated by everything. I remember remarking to one of the adult helpers who came with the group that it would pay to be in his gang when he took over the world: he was that sort of child, and you couldn't help feeling that he would make headline news one day. What a terrible pity that it should be so early and in such a way.