No, it is not true that only the English can be gentlemen. It may be a more common state amongst those who have won the lottery of life by being born in the right place but as with the Jewish concept of the Righteous Amongst the Nations, we would do well to remind ourselves that that state of near nirvana, gentility, is not our exclusive preserve.

This blog would therefore like to draw your attention to the Gentleman of the Month, a certain Naed Asad Y Abu-Rmaileh. As you might guess from the name, he is of Arab extraction, quite possibly with skin of a dusky hue and he is, as the Mail on Sunday tells us, "an impoverished Jordanian".

The background to the story: Mr. Abu-Rmaileh Esq (for having decided that he is a gentleman we should address him as such)  married a certain Elen Rives in Abu Dhabi in November 1999. The marriage was short-lived and they divorced three years later, some 5 months after Ms. Rives had met Frank Lampard, to whom she is now engaged and with whom she has a daughter.

The Mail on Sunday reporter tracked down Mr. Abu-Rmaileh Esq to "his crumbling home town near Amman, Jordan" where he "lives in a crowded three-bedroom house with his parents and eight of his ten siblings".

Think of this: impoverished man, story to tell, faced by a representative of Britain’s most cash heavy newspaper. You can see the gears turning, can’t you? The penny (or many hundreds of thousands of them) dropping? Centre page splash to buy a larger house for the family perhaps?

The response?

"I don’t have any problems with my ex-wife but I’m not prepared to speak to you unless I have her permission. I really wish her the best for the rest of her life."

Doff caps Gentlemen and you in the cheap seats can tug forelocks. The world would be a better place if there were rather more with such good manners.