Of course some young people put themselves in harm’s way for a noble cause. And when those people are heirs to the throne, we are placed in a particularly uncomfortable position. The news of each royal deployment to Afghanistan, no matter how courageous, no matter how uplifting the example, makes my heart sink. Because the bare truth is that for some figures we simply must be ready when the moment comes, even if, one hopes, it does not come for a very long time. Which means that obits editors are, by nature, worriers. Many are we, on this and other papers, whose nerves have been frazzled by the limitless potential for getting caught out. Scenes of devastation, where every casualty is a youthful, unobituarised hero of the pop charts, play in the mind’s eye.